FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2010
Danielle McNamara
 (510) 987-0230

Press Release

 

Ten percent of the community college students recognized as the best in California hold majors in some of the most challenging subjects and are members of an award-winning academic enrichment program.

 

Seven of the 67 Phi Theta Kappa All-California Community College Academic Team Award winners this year are MESA students. Grades, leadership and community service determine the winners of this prestigious accolade.

 

Mathematics, Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) provides educationally disadvantaged students with the tools to earn bachelor’s degrees in math-based fields. With tutoring and mentoring, extra study sessions, transfer counseling and study centers, MESA provides an environment that allows students to succeed in math and science and navigate the transfer system more easily.

 

The MESA awardees are:

  • Justin Bricker, electrical engineering, Ventura College/Oxnard College
  • Edgar Collazo, biology, Hartnell College
  • Alayna Eaton, microbiology, Solano College
  • Timothy Fuller, biology, Hartnell College
  • Ashley Good, biological science, Skyline College
  • Derrick Hau, natural science, Skyline College
  • Jeremy Morales Madrigal, engineering, Canada College

 

Phi Theta Kappa, a national honor society, selects the winners. The Community College League of California recognized students at a luncheon last week.

 

The California Community Colleges and MESA began working together in 1993 to bolster community college transfer rates in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The collaboration has yielded phenomenal success. Of the MESA community college students who transfer, 100 percent go to four-year institutions as science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) majors.

 

Currently MESA has programs in 33 of California’s 110 community colleges and serves less than one half a percent of the one million full time community college students in the state. MESA accounts for more than five percent of all math-based community college transfers in California and more than 11 percent of all transfers from underrepresented groups in those fields.