GRECIA PAOLA SIONA GUTIERREZ 
(GRE-see-ah pah-OH-lah see-OH-noh GU-tee-er-rez, she/her)

Grecia Paola Siono Gutierrez is a current junior studying Electrical Engineering with a depth in Electric Circuits and Systems at UC San Diego to prepare herself to design circuits for important space missions. She was born and raised in a city near the US/Mexico border Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico and started working on furthering her passion for science through science fairs in Middle School and through competitive Robotics in high school. In 2020 she was awarded the Baja California State Youth Award for Academic Merit recognizing her efforts conducting research at UC San Diego, participating nationally in robotics and giving back to the community by teaching STEM topics.

Her journey to university was not an easy one. She dreamed of studying engineering in the United States with the hope of being part of the space industry one day. Although she was accepted to top institutions like UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, she did not have the economic means to pursue her degree in the U.S. That is why commuted from Mexicali to Palm Desert to pursue her Associate Degree in Mathematics and Physics at College of the Desert. She worked as a tutor in Physics and Mathematics in the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) Center to fund her education in the U.S. In May of 2023, she was awarded the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship for Transfer students out of 1,700 students from across the nation to pursue university debt-free.

At College of the Desert (COD), she participated in diverse projects. She was part of the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) Program which ignited her passion for space. She created and led as president the Roadrunner Robotics Club where she taught students how to code and build robotics projects from scratch while ensuring an inclusive, respectful, and collaborative environment. Grecia found her true passion by being part of programs like the MUREP NASA Program where she was selected to be in a NASA funded team at COD which design, built, programmed and launched a 1U CubeSat across the Salton Sea to analyze the CO2 profile of the region and the California Space Grant Program where she built a Rover with various sensors as a final project. She reaffirmed her passion for electronics and vowed to give her engineering career a purpose and use her engineering knowledge toward space exploration.

In the future, Grecia aspires to inspire young Latinas to pursue degrees in STEM by giving back to her community through robotics. She wishes to pursue a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering to contribute to the space industry through instrumentation and research. Grecia dreams of contributing to bringing Mexico a step closer to being a leader in space research and exploration.