Google named MESA a 2016 RISE Award recipient for providing STEM education access to underserved populations.
Each year, the tech giant awards organizations around the world that successfully increase diversity in computer science education.
The award funding will be used to implement Cascade the Code, a near-peer, mentoring initiative that places MESA engineering students with MESA pre-college students to teach computer science projects and activities.
More than 2,000 MESA middle and high school students throughout California will gain coding skills and educational inspiration from university MESA students.
Cascade the Code will mobilize more than 100 university students to give back to their communities. Students will come from the following MESA campus centers: CSU Los Angeles, San Jose State University, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz.
MESA was among 28 organizations from more than a dozen countries recognized this year.