Gexsy Nava

Gexsy is a R&D Engineer at Recor Medical, a medical device company in Palo Alto. In coordination with other departments, he is responsible for designing and testing medical products to help reduce hypertension.

As an East Palo Alto native, Gexsy attended schools, East Palo Alto Charter School (EPACS) and Eastside College Prep. As a first-generation college student, he went on to graduate from UC Irvine with a Bachelor Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. While in high school, he realized that there were not a lot of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) extracurricular programs targeted for first-generation students. Seeing that, he helped create and developed a robotics curriculum that included multiple schools in the area to spur interest in STEM fields. He then took that same energy and applied it at UC Irvine. He participated in various first-generation programs that helped freshman students transition from high school to college level courses. He led a mentorship program that partnered first-generation college students with incoming first-generation freshman students to aid them in their STEM development and curiosity. Post college, he wanted to continue to give back to his community and grow his passion to help reduce the disparity of opportunities for first-generation students. He became a mentor at Peninsula College Fund, a nonprofit organization supporting low-income, first-generation college students in reaching their higher education goals. He saw what Oxford Day Academy is doing to help provide more opportunities for first-generation students and wanted to be a part of it.