An Engineer Who Learned Discipline and Collaboration at SBCC

Learning to Work with Other Students Prepared Her for a Professional Career

Credit: Ingrid Bostrom

Branded Content Presented by Santa Barbara City College Office of Communications

When Victoria Melero entered her first semester at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), she was among the only women in her engineering course of around 15 students. Having just transferred from Loyola Marymount University (LMU) to SBCC, Melero, quite confident in her abilities, began ditching her engineering class, assured that she would be fine despite her absences.

That is until the director of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement Program (MESA) confronted her. “I just want to let you know that when you’re one of the only girls, and you’re gone; it’s noticeable,” the director told her.

“It made me realize that people are invested in me; people care about me,” she said.

Melero had first attended SBCC when she joined the dual enrollment program as a student at Santa Barbara High School. By dipping her toes in different college-level subjects, she learned that she wanted to pursue engineering.

After high school, she attended Loyola Marymount University for a year but found it wasn’t the right fit for her. Instead, she said, “I wanted to go back to where I was successful … where I was comfortable.” And that’s when she enrolled at SBCC.

After hearing what the director of MESA told her, Melero started regularly attending her classes. But she quickly realized that she couldn’t handle her studies alone. When she got a D grade in a calculus class, she was forced to admit that some of her study habits were not working. She realized she needed to buckle down and commit to her dream. “It was a wake-up call,” she shared. “Am I really going to do this or not?”

At the time, that single D might have felt like a major setback, but in retrospect, it became a catalyst for growth and a turning point in Melero’s academic journey. It forced her to reevaluate her approach and embrace collaboration. She joined study groups through the MESA and began taking her studies seriously again.

She and her classmates would get together before tests and help each other refine concepts taught in class. Studying with her classmates helped her improve in her classes, and she got back on track. “You need other people,” she reflected.

The engineering community became a second family. Together, they even started a chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers named SHPE Ingenium.

The club hosted engineering competitions, where groups of engineering students competed in challenges such as designing an obstacle course, using a solar panel to make a car roll, and creating a launcher. These hands-on projects provided invaluable experience and forged a spirit of collaboration and innovation. They allowed students to apply classroom knowledge to real-world problems and learn from each other’s creativity.

In her last year at SBCC, Melero won the Engineering Student of the Year award. “I feel like everyone there puts so much work in, so it’s like, when you have to pick one, it’s really hard,” she mused modestly. Nonetheless, she was proud of herself.

In all, Melero spent three years studying at SBCC. Because the engineering program required so many classes, she walked away with four associate degrees. The challenging education at SBCC prepared her for UCSB. “I hit the ground running,” she shared. “And … I had a lot more foundation than some of the kids that were at UCSB for the whole four years.”

After graduating in 2013 with a degree in electrical engineering, Melero began working for defense and space manufacturing company Lockheed Martin, where she had interned during her senior year at UCSB. After eight years there as an electrical engineer, she moved to Raytheon as an Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) engineer. For the last two years, she has worked at Karl Storz.

When Melero interviews candidates seeking work, she takes special note of résumés listing that they have attended SBCC. “It reassures me that they have gone through the same rigorous program that I went through.”

This article was paid for by Santa Barbara City College. For more information on Santa Barbara City College and the hundreds of programs they offer, visit sbcc.edu or (805) 965-0581. If you are an SBCC alumni please join SBCC Alumni Connect at sbccfoundation.org/alumni.