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Compton pride was the theme of the evening as the first place national engineering design competition winners from Roosevelt Middle School were feted at a special banquet at the Marriott Hotel in Torrance on August 16. Statewide officials, the Compton Unified School District, the City of Compton, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Dodgers, HP and Sempra Energy heaped honors and gifts onto the team who returned from Baltimore with the gold after besting teams from seven other states. Staff aide James Westbrooks from State Senator Ed Vincent’s office was on hand to present special commendations to the team and Assembly Representative Mervyn Dymally also sent a recognition award to students Erie French, Alexis Padilla, Raymundo Villasenor and Jeffrey Washington. School District Deputy Superintendent Robert Nero lauded the students and acknowledged the important role of the school and the district, saying, “We recognized the quality of what you have done.” Roosevelt Middle School Principal Ruby White concurred, telling the students, “You are the crème de la crème! We want to support you in your quest for excellence.” Also honored were the students’ families, MESA advisors Oscar Espinoza and Philip Gerlach and special guests Alejandro Lopez, and Daniel Ceasar, two members of last year’s Roosevelt team who set the standard by winning first place in the national competition. On hand to emcee the program was Leyla Riley, MESA Director of the UC Irvine program that services the Compton area, and MESA Academic Coordinator Marvin Maldonado, who escorted the team to the California finals in Fresno and to the national championship in Baltimore. Riley noted that MESA will be expanding services to 6 Compton elementary schools this fall, an increase of five schools, while continuing to serve 8 middle and 3 senior high schools in the city. The winning students continued the theme of community pride as they made final remarks of the evening. “Four kids from Compton!” French said to the audience. “The importance of winning goes beyond just us. It shows that the city of Compton is a place where people can achieve if they just keep their minds on the goal.”
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