FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2012
Danielle McNamara
(510) 987-0230
Press Release
Stagg High School students are California champions of a competitive engineering contest.
After months of designing, creating and competing, a team of Stagg High MESA students were named high school state champs of the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) National Engineering Design Competition
The group beat out thousands other students at preliminary and regional competitions, to triumph at the championship at UC Santa Barbara on May 12. The 4-student team came out on top by designing the best wind energy device.
They now move on for a chance to claim the national title held June 22-24 at the Boeing Assembly Facility in Renton, WA.
The wind energy design competition falls in line with MESA’s goal to stay current with science, engineering and technology trends. The project teaches students to understand design principles such as torque, generating and storing wind energy as well as how to think like environmental scientists.
The team members are 10th grader Brooklyn Omstead, 11th graders, Sean Fergusan and Emily Cornelison and 12th grader Julian De Los Santos. They are lead by MESA advisor Andrew Walter. Stagg students are served by the MESA center housed at University of the Pacific School of Engineering and Computer Science.
The wind energy project is part of MESA Days, a yearly showcase of students’ math and science know-how. Through MESA and MESA Day competitions, students can explore future careers in science, engineering and other technical fields.
MESA is an academic preparation program that serves more than 21,000 California pre-college, community college and university students who are educationally disadvantaged.
Seventy-four percent of MESA high school students go to college after graduation compared to 41 percent of all California students. Sixty percent of MESA high school graduates go on to college as math, engineering or science majors.
For more information about the students, contact UCSB MESA director Maria Garcia-Sheets atmsheets@pacific.edu or 209-946-3057.
For more information about MESA visit mesa.ucop.edu