Christian Demesa

Education Sciences Major and Minor in Mathematics

Christian grew up in Murrieta, California. He is passionate about the arts and currently works with the Partners at Learning (PAL) program. The university's largest service-learning program, PAL connects UC San Diego students with K-12 students in underserved communities for tutoring and mentorship. Christian says the PAL program is a great opportunity to gain experience in the educational field and also dive into the inequalities and injustice that exist in the school system.

Why UC San Diego
Initially torn between UCLA and UC San Diego, Christian preferred the campus and atmosphere at UC San Diego. Additionally, he found the city of San Diego to be lower-cost than Los Angeles and provide better financial circumstances.

Why Education Sciences
Christian initially enrolled as a Math major and Education Sciences minor. In high school, he passed all of his high-level math courses with “flying colors,” loving everything about the subject. He also began tutoring younger students, ultimately leading him to become the assistant manager of the company at only 18 years old. He thoroughly enjoyed that experience and realized he was passionate about education. At UC San Diego, he found the math classes to be too challenging but was consistently impressed by the Education Sciences faculty and reversed to have a major in Education Sciences and minor in Math. 

Plans after graduation
After graduation, Christian plans to attend graduate school at UC San Diego and receive a master’s degree, potentially in Fine Arts, and a teaching degree at the same time. He is receiving a certification in children’s book illustration from UC San Diego Extension, and he says he plans to teach elementary school students, but would be happy working with any age in the future. Christian says he wants to combine his love of the arts and teaching and focus on arts education in particular.