PSU Magazine Fall 1987

Young people reach for technical careers through MESA program by Cynthia D. Stowell 0 nly one Hispanic student was among the approximately 250 engineering students who graduated from Portland State this year. There were no Blacks and no American Indians. These statistics are reflected nationally in the engineering work– place. An estimated 3-4 percent of pro– fessional engineers in the United States are Black, Hispanic or American Indian. Portland State University and Port– land Public Schools are trying to cor– rect this situation with a special pro– gram designed to encourage middle school and high school students of "underrepresented minorities" to pursue careers in the technical fields. Portland-MESA (Mathematics, Engi– neering, Science Achievement) starts its third year this fall with over 300 students from 12 Portland schools. "We begin at the middle school level because by high school it's too late," says Portland-MESA coordinator Renee Wilkerson-Anderson. "They've already blocked out math and science." Anderson was a successful MESA coordinator in California, where MESA was born in 1970, before she came to Portland in 1985 to start the PSU-based program. MESA targets Blacks, Indians and Hispanics, but also encourages female students (who made up 2/ 3 of this year's Portland-MESA membership) and economically disadvantaged stu– dents from the participating Northeast and Southeast Portland schools. And MESA is unusual because it focuses on the student working at grade level, not on the remedial or accelerated student. "Average students can be mathema– ticians, scientists and engineers," said Anderson. "Studies show that students working at grade level who had to struggle in high school often do better STRnCHING MINDS MESA students Tina Reese (middle) and Sarah Wood (left) receive help on their egg drop contest entry from PSU student Grace Baek during the five-week summer program atPSU. at college than (their gifted counter– parts)." Anderson will have a chance to test this theory in the fall, when eight of Portland-MESA's first nine graduating seniors go off to college campuses, five with plans to major in math or scie11ce-related fields. Conducting some of the MESA enrichment activities at Portland State gives students a taste of college life they wouldn't ordinarily have, believes MESA executive director Chik Erzurumlu, who is dean of PSU's School of Engineering and Applied Science. "Experiencing the university environment gives them incentive to pursue college careers," said Erzurumlu, "but there is no expecta– tion that MESA students come to PSU." PSU MAGAZINE PAGE 12 T he heart of MESA is the school chapter, which meets weekly with the guidance of a faculty advisor. Through these chapters, stu– dents engage in hands-on math and science projects (for example, dissect– ing a shark and building rockets) and benefit from tutoring, college advising and guest speakers. "It's like a club," said Anderson. "And it's all extracur– ricular." This summer, MESA students spent five weeks at PSU, taking classes and preparing for an open house that fea– tured an egg drop contest. Coached by PSU students, the MESA students engineered tiny foam structures designed to protect an egg from a one– storey fall. MESA students also have real-life exposure to the math and science pro– fessions through visits to local indus-