Several years ago, Rebeka León was a high school graduate working at Dollar General.
Every day, while helping Merced College and UC Merced students at the store, León couldn’t help but feel their energy. Then she realized she wanted it for herself, so she quit and went searching.
“It was the best thing I’ve ever done,” she said.
Three years later, León is a Merced College graduate and a motivated engineering student bound for UC Merced in the fall—just as soon as she completes an important internship.
León is the first Merced College student to earn a coveted UC Santa Barbara Quantum Foundry research internship. The program welcomes outstanding California Community College and California State University science and engineering students to UCSB for eight weeks of research work.
“It made me think, ‘Oh, actually I have made it pretty far,’” León said about receiving the news. “Earning the internship has helped me gain a lot more confidence, because I know that things like this can happen to you no matter where you’re from.”
The Quantum Foundry experience is meant to nurture the next generation of professional scientists from among students who show promise. León will earn a $5,000 stipend for her participation in the program.
Her mentor in the program is Amalu Shimamura, a graduate student assisting Professor Galan Moody in the Quantum Photonics Lab. Her work includes “screening and analyzing photonics devices such as ring resonators or simulating 2D straight waveguides”—here we turn to León to explain what any of that means.
“That was me when I first read the description of the project I’ll be working on,” she said with a laugh. “I was scared because I didn’t understand half of it. But the quantum level refers to extremely small systems such as atoms and subatomic particles. At the quantum scale, things don’t behave like they do in everyday life, but instead are governed by the rules of quantum mechanics. It’s crazy to think about.
“So we’ll be studying an MMI coupler, which is a building block for photonic integrated circuits. Similar to how electrical circuits route electrical signals through wires, photonic circuits use waveguides to guide and manipulate light. Photonic chips can be used in medical applications, high-speed internet, and for advances in quantum computing.”
Interns also develop their oral and written science communication skills, attend a weekly seminar with Quantum Foundry faculty, and complete networking and professional development workshops.
León was a sophomore at Hilmar High School taking honors chemistry when she first discovered an affinity for science. It was the hardest class she’d ever encountered, and in working through the difficulty, León found her calling.
“It came very naturally to me,” she said.
Jaskaran Dhesi, Merced College STEM Professor and director of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program, encouraged León to apply for the internship.
“He kept telling me that I’d get the internship for sure, but I was like, ‘I don’t know. I’m from such a small town,’” she said. “But I applied to several, and I tried to keep faith that I would get into at least one. It’s so great to get this chance.”
León was one of the first students to join MESA, which helps underserved and underrepresented students find success in STEM studies, when it launched three years ago at Merced College.
“Without it, I don’t feel like I’d be where I am right now,” she said. “No way I would have thought of college. Also, I never made a lot of friends at school because I was so focused. But now it’s good to connect to people who do what I do.”
León also tutored at the MESA Center.
“It helped me grow a lot,” she said. “Tutoring helped me learn how to break down something super complicated into simpler terms.”
The 21-year-old graduated from Merced College in May with Associate of Science degrees in Engineering and Engineering Technology and AS-Transfer degrees in Mathematics, Physics and Cal-GETC. This fall, she will study Chemical Engineering at UC Merced.
León is one of the first in her family with a chance to do something different in life. She is determined to change life for her parents, who have worked so hard for their children after immigrating from Mexico.
“They’re very proud and excited for me, especially when I told them that not many people get these internships,” León said. “I chose this major for my family, to be able to provide for them the way they did for me.”