The Mesa Press
Renee Schmiedeberg is a writer and journalist based in San Diego, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with an emphasis in Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach, and three associate degrees in journalism, English literature, and arts/visual studies from San Diego Mesa and Miramar College.
She speaks conversational Cantonese and has beginner level Mandarin.
Her past work includes Long Beach Post, LA Canvas, Locale Magazine, The Mesa Press, Long Beach Union Weekly (renamed 22 West Magazine), DIG Magazine and ThoughtCatalog.
The Mesa Press
Two elevator permits have been expired since June 2019 in Mesa's Humanities and Multicultural Studies Building (G Building) and Student Services Center (I-400), respectively, as confirmed by the State of California Department of Industrial Relations. Both permits say the last date of inspection was June 8, 2018 and expire exactly a year later.
Ziploc bags with names - Amelia, Helen, Barbara - are stuck with pins to a brown corkboard displayed in front of a house in Mira Mesa. The board is colorful; inside each bag is electrified Pikachu, Olaf the snowman, moose on lumberjack plaids, and pastel florals.
San Diego Mesa College President Pamela Luster announced that Mesa and the rest of SDCCD will send off their graduates with a Virtual Commencement Ceremony this year instead of an in-person ceremony to comply with coronavirus safety measures. The announcement was made during Luster's May 6 virtual College Forum.
California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley responded to growing student concerns over how COVID-19 changes their education in a teleconference meeting that took place mid-April. Extension of distance learning into fall and spring semesters, allocation of funds, and sanitization of campuses were some questions Chancellor Oakley addressed in a teleconference with over a hundred...
Bernie Sanders suspended his 2020 presidential campaign in early April, leaving Joe Biden as the last Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election. This was the Brooklyn native's second time running and dropping out of a presidential race. Some say his campaign, a platform that ran on "Medicare for All," a $15 federal minimum wage,...
Spring and summer 2020 classes will continue online for the duration of the semester, announced the San Diego Community College District. SDCCD Chancellor Constance M. Carroll expressed that the resolution was made to help in academic planning. The decision was imperative during this time of deep uncertainty, given the ongoing social distancing order amid the...
Many SDCCD classes will be transitioning online temporarily for an initial two-week period starting March 16, wrote Mesa College President, Pamela T. Luster, in a campus-wide email sent on the evening of March 11. There have been no confirmations of COVID-19 in the SDCCD. Students will be notified before April 6, the date students return...
Fiction has a fantastic purpose. The point of fiction is not to tell a story extremely accurately in the most unimportant ways possible. The point of fiction is to carry a complex message in the most potent and effective way possible. Fiction is not documentary and has never strived to be.
Will you save us, oh great and mighty Elon? I shake my Magic 8-Ball once more, and then wait for the blue triangle to surface from the black liquid. Don't count on it. The company website touts, "Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."
This upcoming spring semester will begin in February, a change from previous semesters, which have for years begun in the last week of January. Consequently, the spring semester will run later, ending in early June, the week after Memorial Day. Something students can look forward to with this change is a longer winter break this...
It's a brisk fall morning in Clinton, North Carolina, though you wouldn't know it from the windowless cement house you live in. The dude in the white suit comes out again, this time grabbing you and another guy from across the barn. You are both transported to various classrooms to be gawked at by school...
Students have likely seen white tents emitting soothing music in the Learning Resource Center Quad around midterms and finals. But this semester, and hopefully from here on, Comfort Tents will happen once every month. Upon entering, visitors are brought through a short hallway of sign-in sheets, flyers for other similar events and mental health-related resources,...
This fall semester saw the opening of San Diego Mesa College's Fostering Academic Success & Transitions (FAST) Center. It is the only physical space in a San Diego community college devoted entirely to the needs of foster youth. Instead of bouncing between help desks and counselor's offices, the new FAST Center is the physical manifestation...
By now we've all seen that guy: turning a corner in a Midori-green Scion, cracking open the driver's side window to squint through reflective Oakley sunglasses, a floating head in a black beanie emerging from vanilla Smok clouds pouring out the window. I'd put it at around 2014, when I first started noticing vaping become...
A piece of breaking news in the past month has been the Amazon forest fires. Celebrities across fields of fame have weighed in, from super soccer-player Cristiano Ronaldo to French President Emmanuel Macron. "Our house is on fire" is a popular phrase being used in conjunction with the fires, popularized by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist...
This past summer I was able to take a trip I had dreamed about my entire post-infantile-amnesia life. My mom's side of the family is from Hong Kong, and I grew up hearing the often magical stories about the city and was not able to visit it until this year.
Podcasts / Multimedia
San Diego's been in quarantine for just a week shy of two months. The county is slowly opening up, but do we as San Diegans feel safe? What's going on with KKK activity in Santee? Who knew there were so many anti-lockdowners in San Diego? And WHAT are we going to do first when all...
We emerge from a month and a half of country-wide coronavirus lockdown to answer the questions on every college student's mind: How do you keep sane during insane times? Can distance learning truly sub for in-person lessons? And finally, how will coronavirus change us forever? Figure this out with us.
Keep staying indoors with The Mesa Press's first quarantine podcast episode! Our first remote recording covers the initial week of online classes due to the emergency coronavirus campus shut down! Find out how Mesa students are handling the shut down, indoor corona-free activities, quarantine homecookin', distance socializing (or lack thereof), not working, and undiluted expressions...
Students answer The Word for week of Feb. 25, 2020. What is the most important issue in the 2020 US election?
Something Newsy – Episode 17 The Mesa Press Staff December 14, 2019 Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email Is this the I-5 during traffic hour over here? Because this episode features possibly the most students to ever record a single episode of Something Newsy! We start off with thoughts on the apocalypse/climate crisis, veganism, Sea World, animals, and finish up with a passionate and comprehensive review of Mesa’s cafeteria food.
This episode features Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Stahl, News Editor Renee Schmiedeberg, and Staff Writer Nyesha Harper. The ladies discuss a few hot topics in the Mesa College dialogue: review a campus bathroom, equality in feminine sanitary products, gender reveal parties, and California’s new Assembly Bill 485, or the “adopt don’t shop” bill.
Long Beach Union Weekly, LA Canvas, Long Beach Post, Locale Mag, ThoughtCatalog
New UAM exhibit features politically charged photographs of post-war Germany
UAM's new exhibit gives visitors a glimpse into the experience of a bee
Those searching for artistic material unsullied and unfiltered by mass media behemoths will find their cravings satisfied through a new-ish medium: zines! If you haven't yet heard of them, zines are the most honest published material you'll find anywhere (other than your sister's diary of course).
Whether you're an artist, an entrepreneur, a chef, a musician or all of the above-you need a website. With a website, your work, services, and talent are more easily discovered by others. Because hiring your own Web Developer can get pricey, you'll need a website that's affordable and easy to use.
Interview by Renee Schmiedeberg for LA Canvas and Square Space. "POMPOM" is the whimsical moniker she goes by when she's in LA making music nostalgic for the 80s. Audrey is her name when she's a regular girl visiting her small hometown in Nevada.
Taking the bus scares me. Many other people are scared of the bus too, and for good reason.
Ugly Magazine is a magazine where my team I explore race and beauty, interviewing randomly selected POC at California State University, Long Beach and connecting our findings to scholarly research.
Nearly 300 different presentations of fashion fabulousness strutted down the runway last week at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, setting trends for the fall season. Here's some common threads that were showcased. Oversized Heavy Fabric Sweaters Our first fall trend is oversized sweaters, especially good for the lazy yet fashion hungry.
A sharp dresser recounts his journey to self-expression
Product Copywriting
For this DecoPhone pamphlet/webpage/advertisement I wrote the copy, designed the page, took photos, and formatted it all in Photoshop. DecoPhone is a product and brand I created on Etsy, a website for buying and selling handmade goods.