Two Mendota High School students have brought a national engineering championship back to the Central Valley after designing an innovative mental health solution to support students in underserved schools.
Juniors Jonathan Alfaro Saravia and Christopher Torres-Alfaro won first place at the MESA National Engineering Design Competition with Safe Space, a multilingual crisis-response system that provides anonymous, real-time mental health support for students.
Hosted at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland June 22-25 middle and high school teams from seven MESA states presented their projects.
Competing against top student teams from across the country, the Mendota students impressed judges by combining engineering, technology and compassion to address one of today's most pressing challenges: improving access to mental health resources for young people.
In addition to designing their project, teams presented their work to judges and industry professionals, demonstrating the collaboration and communication skills that are essential for engineers. The team spent months researching, designing and improving their app before beating out teams locally and regionally, becoming state champs then heading to nationals.
Safe Space reflects the ingenuity, determination and commitment to service that MESA focuses on human-centered design and giving back to the community.
"Jonathan and Christopher represent the best of the Central Valley,” said Beatrice Prieto, who currently leads all middle and high school MESA programming in California and formerly was a Fresno State MESA director. “They saw a need in their community and used engineering to create a solution that could improve lives. Their success shows that students from rural communities can compete—and win—on the national stage."
Making this success story even sweeter: Jonathan won at nationals in 2023 as a MESA middle school student.
The championship is a proud achievement for Mendota High School and the Fresno State MESA Center, which provides hands-on STEM opportunities for students throughout the region. The students were mentored by MESA advisor and teacher Eloy Pena with special championing and support from teacher Carlos Tamayo. The whole group is guided by the Fresno State MESA center, led by Alejandra Plascencia through the Lyles College of Engineering, which has served students in the Central Valley since 1980.
This achievement also reflects the strong network of support behind student success that includes Mendota High School Principal Travis Kirby and Mendota Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Paul Lopez.