FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 9, 2016
Danielle McNamara
510-987-0230

 

Conference scholarship is Oracle’s latest effort to empower MESA students and teachers in coding and computer science

 

Sixteen middle and high school teachers from across California will gain coding skills and educational inspiration thanks to a generous scholarship from Oracle Academy.

Teachers will attend the Computer Science Teachers Association conference July 10-12 in San Diego with all expenses covered by Oracle. The endowment is in support of the White House’s Computer Science for All Initiative and Oracle’s continued commitment to MESA.

This scholarship builds on years of support and collaboration between MESA and the tech giant. Oracle Academy has also supported Java trainings for teachers, summer coding camps for MESA students and Alice and Greenfoot coding competitions. 

Since 2013, Oracle has awarded MESA more than $100,000 and furthered the commitment to uplift computer science education for underserved students.

The continued focus on professional development for teachers in low-performing schools is a key tenant of MESA’s mission to provide high-quality science, technology, engineering and math curriculum to educationally disadvantaged students. Teachers take leading industry skills back to their classrooms to enhance computer literacy among all students. 

 

The following MESA teachers representing their schools and MESA centers will attend the conference:

 

Name

School

Center

Fema Bernido

De Anza High

CSU East Bay

Howard Wilson

Creekside JHS

CSU Fresno

Valentina Mascorro

Los Banos JH

CSU Fresno

Alma Fernandez

Orchard MS

CSULA

Joel Rizo

Burbank Middle School

CSULA

Roy Marquez

Franklin STEM

CSULA

Joyce Sullivan

Southwest HS

Imperial Valley

Luis Garcia

Calexico High

Imperial Valley

Mario Magallanes

Calexico High

Imperial Valley

Brittany Ifergan

Del Dios Academy

SDSU

Jeff Mellinger

Hoover High

SDSU

Maria Aguilar

California MS

UC Davis/Sac

Gloria Rodriguez

Santa Paula

UCSB

Marlon Veal

Alianza Charter

UCSC

Rebecca Ward

Alisal High

UCSC

Jerry Coronado

Bethune Middle School

USC

 

MESA is uniquely positioned to provide engagement and inspiration to the growing number of diverse STEM students and future STEM professionals. The program provides academic enrichment, counsel and support for educationally disadvantaged students who have an interest in pursuing degrees in STEM fields.

 

More than twice as many MESA high school seniors go to college compared to all California high school graduates (92% vs 41% respectively). Further, 56% of MESA high school graduates go to college in STEM majors. More than two-thirds of MESA students are Latino, African American, American Indian and Pacific Islander.

 

MESA’s success comes in part from industry collaborations such as Oracle’s scholarship awardees. MESA’s recent partners also include Cisco, SanDisk, Edison International and NVIDIA.