Britt Fairchild / Features Writer | Posted: Monday, December 6, 2004 12:00 am
When she began her internship at the University of California at Santa Barbara this summer, Allan Hancock College student Alma Garcia knew little about such advanced scientific concepts as quantum mechanics.
But she wasn/t about to let the complex theory on subatomic motion scare her off.
Just because she hadn/t yet taken higher level classes where such ideas were taught, didn/t mean she couldn/t learn them herself.
Garcia/s voracious ambition and dedication 77 which included a lot of reading and research on the unfamiliar subjects 77 paid off.
At the end of October, Garcia was one of 30 out of almost 500 community college, university and graduate students nationwide to receive an award for her poster presentation at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science conference in Austin, Texas.
And her project describing how to make a device called an accelerometer smaller and more efficient was one of only two selected as winners in the engineering category.
"(The others/) posters looked great," Garcia said, noting at the time she didn/t think she would win. "They were so prepared."
Garcia had completed the project months earlier as an intern with the Internships in Science, Engineering and Technology program, which is sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The goal of INSET is to bring science and engineering students from community colleges to UCSB for summer research experiences with laboratory training and professional development at the California NanoSystems Institute.
INSET interns have the opportunity to travel to the SACNAS conference to present their research to judges from universities and science-based industries.
The goal of SACNAS is to encourage Chicano/Latino and Native American students to pursue graduate education and obtain the advanced degrees necessary for science research, leadership and teaching careers at all levels.
Garcia conducted her project, "Understanding the Lateral Tunneling Accelerometer and the Micromachining Process" under the mentorship of UCSB Assistant Professor Dr. Kimberly Turner and graduate student Laura Oropeza-Ramos of the mechanical and environmental engineering department.
Besides being there to show her poster, Garcia also had to answer questions from judges about her project.
"I was a little nervous," she said.
Although she had given presentations to her instructor and a former Hancock student who now attends UCSB in preparation of this portion of the conference, Garcia still felt anxious.
"My project involves many concepts," she said.
She was going to need to explain what her project was, and how and why it worked, using those concepts she had taught herself just months earlier.
Plus, she added, she would need to generate all of the discussion.
During her internship, she said, she participated in weekly presentations on the progress of her project, but because there were others in the group, she often let them to most of the talking.
This time, she was on her own.
"I explained what I learned from my research," she said.
Apparently, Garcia needn/t have been so nervous 77 after the judges were done with their questioning, they told Garcia how impressed they were with how well she understood subjects she hadn/t yet learned in school.
Even so, Garcia thought her chances were nil.
"I feel I didn/t have the chance to win," she said.
Then, during dinner later that night, Garcia heard her name announced.
"There were a lot of people. I was kind of nervous. I was surprised," she said, remembering how she felt as she walked up to receive her award.
In her third year at Hancock, Garcia credited her involvement with Hancock/s Math, Engineering, Science Achievement program as what helped build the foundation for her to create such a successful project.
MESA is open to minority and underprivileged students at Hancock majoring in math, science and engineering. It provides students with computers and copiers to use, as well as tutoring and academic excellence workshops which help students with homework and test preparation.
Because all MESA students have similar majors and take many of the same classes, "We can easily help each other," Garcia said.
Garcia was one of six Hancock MESA students, and one non-MESA student, who attended the conference with Hancock faculty.
She was the only student from Hancock to make a presentation.
Garcia, who had earlier that morning sent her application to Cal Poly in hopes of getting in to its architectural engineering program, noted she was told she would receive a check in the mail as part of her award, but she isn/t sure for how much or when it will come.
But with or without the money, Garcia feels good about winning because she was recognized for her hard work and a job well done.
"I already know I did good," she said.
* Staff Writer Britt Fairchild can be reached at 739-2220 or by e-mail at bfairchild@pulitzer.net.
Dec. 3, 2004