Director's Corner: On transforming communities

The connection between MESA students’ accomplishments and a community’s pride could not have been clearer than on a night in late July when a community honored its own. Four Roosevelt Middle School students—Erie French, Alexis Padilla, Raymundo Villasenor and Jeffrey Washington—and their parents, along with two of the previous year’s national championship team members from the school, were celebrated by their community for winning the National MESA Engineering Design competition.

The school district was there. The principal and the two MESA advisors were there. Staff from the UC Irvine MESA center were there. Members of the school board, representatives from national, state and local government were there. Words of praise and acknowledgement were offered to the students and the parents who supported them. Congratulatory resolutions from governing bodies were read. Gifts were bestowed on the champions, everything from a laptop computer to Lakers tickets. There was immense pride and pleasure derived from the success of these four young men.

We know that for its students, MESA transforms aspirations into expectations. However, we may not immediately recognize that MESA does this for communities as well as individuals. By working with communities to realize what their young people can accomplish, MESA provides the positive transformation needed and wanted by so many of the places we serve.

How easy it would be for anyone to miss the deeper meaning of the celebration of our Roosevelt team. But the students did not miss it. “Four kids from Compton!” fourteen-year-old Erie 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.”

These students demonstrate the high level of academic excellence that exists in the communities that MESA serves. That excellence can be realized anywhere if students are given half a chance, if they are taken seriously on the academic playing field, and perhaps most importantly, if they have the support of parents, caring teachers, and administrators who believe in their promise.

With the community and mesa working in partnership, helping students to, as Erie said, “ . . . keep their minds on the goal,” the positive transformation of MESA’s young people and their communities is well under way.

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