· Axl Escarcega will Participate in NCAS from October 27 through December 1, 2021.
· Escarcega moved from California to Iowa, Started Attended DMACC and Turned his Life Around.
· Escarcega, a First Generation College Student, Calls Boone Campus Professor Dr. Nancy Woods His Mentor.
DMACC Boone Campus student Axl Escarcega, originally from Imperial, CA and now living in West Des Moines, has become the latest DMACC student to be invited to a NASA program.
Escarcega, a first-year DMACC Pre-Engineering student, has been selected to participate in the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) Program. Escarcega said he’s excited to be participating in the NCAS program.
“This will be a great opportunity for me to learn about applications of engineering, business and professionalism,” Escarcega said. “Clearly, it would expand my knowledge and provide me with unique opportunities to grow, learn and develop as an engineer, and, hopefully, help me learn which engineering discipline is right for me.”
He said during NCAS, he will be doing courses from October 27 through December 1 which include three modules of readings, videos, short quizzes, a three-part NASA speaker series and a final project.
In addition, he said he will participate in a spring 2022 NASA onsite experience.
Escarcega admits his academic success has taken a 180 degree turn. He said he attended a local community college in 2019 while living in California. “In those two semesters, I completely lost all motivation and determination for school,” Escarcega said. “I was ready to drop out and get any job I could find. Right about that time, my family moved to Iowa because my father got a better job.”
He said after moving to Iowa, he did not plan to go back to school anytime soon. While working for a minimum wage job, he realized how unhappy he was and felt like he was not reaching his full potential.
“I decided to give school another chance and try to find something I am passionate about,” Escarcega said. “When I started attending DMACC in fall 2020, I felt welcomed and received help at every corner I turned. This gave me motivation to continue my education and try my best academically. Because of the welcoming environment at DMACC, I worked hard, and was able to find academic success.”
This past spring, Escarcega was awarded an invitation to join the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) International Honor Society for two-year colleges. He is now a Chapter Officer for the Tau Phi Chapter of PTK on the DMACC Boone Campus.
“I decided to give school another chance and try to find something I am passionate about,” Escarcega said. “When I started attending DMACC in fall 2020, I felt welcomed and received help at every corner I turned. This gave me motivation to continue my education and try my best academically. Because of the welcoming environment at DMACC, I worked hard, and was able to find academic success.”
This past spring, Escarcega was awarded an invitation to join the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) International Honor Society for two-year colleges. He is now a Chapter Officer for the Tau Phi Chapter of PTK on the DMACC Boone Campus.
DMACC Boone Campus Math and Physics Professor and PTK Advisor Dr. Nancy Woods has helped Escarcega succeed. “Axl is an amazing individual,” Woods said. “He has a desire to learn and experience new things. I’m so thankful that he came to the Boone Campus DMACC so that we could work together to find ways to cultivate his passion for learning. I am extremely proud of Axl for taking the leap to apply for NASA’s NCAS program and to commit to complete those requirements on top of his other responsibilities. This summer, Axl is participating in a collaborative research program between ISU and DMACC called “RISE-UP” where he is learning skills, lessons and techniques of formal scientific research. This experience will also help Axl to be prepared, upon completion of his two-year degree, to transfer and successfully navigate the University. I am extremely proud of Axl’s accomplishments and I look forward to great things from him in the future.”
“Nancy Woods is my mentor and is always a great help,” Escarcega said. “She especially helped me a lot in this (NCAS project). I am a first-generation college student coming from a low-income family and thanks to DMACC, I was able to apply to this NASA opportunity as a steppingstone to discover my talents and skills in STEM.”
Escarcega joins a long-list of recent DMACC students with NASA connections. Noah Gleason of Granger, a Boone Campus pre-engineering student, was admitted to the NASA NCAS program last year. Former DMACC Urban Campus and DMACC Boone Campus student Pedro Jose Salazar Garcia of Des Moines has been involved in five recent NASA projects as an undergraduate student initially at DMACC and now at Iowa State University. Current DMACC Ankeny Campus student Mehmet Sefer of Ames, was selected for yet another NASA project. He was chosen as a 2020-2021 NASA Lucy Student Pipeline Accelerator and Competency Enabler (L’SPACE) – Lucy Ambassador. The virtual program was designed around NASA’s upcoming 2021 Lucy mission.
About DMACC
Des Moines Area Community College, a public institution serving the educational and career training needs of Iowans, is committed to the lifelong success of its students. Situated in one of America’s most vibrant regions, DMACC offers 200 programs, certificates and transfer degrees, annually serving more than 70,000 credit and noncredit students on six campuses and six learning centers. Thanks to college-wide innovation including Continuous Process Improvement (CPI), new programs and affordable tuition, DMACC continues to experience solid growth. For more information, please visit www.dmacc.edu.
Axl Escarcega, NASA Community College Scholarship Program recipient, DMACC Boone Campus
