Volume 2, Issue 10 December 2002

The Heart of Tissue Engineering New DNA Detectors Bridge the (Nano)Gap Stress-Free Engineering Diving Into An Ocean Of Storage Berkeley Engineering History: Wilbur Somerton and MESA Dean's Digest

2002
2001

1970: Professor Wilbur Somerton and the Birth of the California Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program to help educationally disadvantaged students excel in math, science and engineering by David Pescovitz Printer-friendly version Wilbur Somerton, founder of the MESA program. Courtesy Mechanical Engineering Department In 1968, mechanical engineering professor and Berkeley alum Wilbur Somerton was faced with a problem that all of the physics in the world couldn't solve. Repeatedly, he was unable to fill industry recruiters' requests for African American and Hispanic engineering graduates. Digging deeper, Somerton and Bill Somerville, then director of Berkeley's Equal Opportunity Program, determined that educationally disadvantaged K-12 students from diverse backgrounds needed an academic support system to encourage interest and foster talent in engineering, mathematics, and science. Two years later, Sommerville, Somerton, and a group of dedicated educators and staff from throughout the campus launched Berkeley's Mathematics Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program to prepare students to complete baccalaureate degrees in engineering and science. A MESA summer program class. Courtesy California MESA Twenty-five students from Oakland Technical High School were selected as the first participants. Today, 32,000 educationally disadvantaged students at pre-college, community college, and university levels are supported under a statewide MESA umbrella program administered by the University of California. Last year, California MESA was named one of the five most innovative public programs in the country in a nationwide competition sponsored by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Council for Excellence in Government. Continuing its momentum, UC Berkeley's MESA — funded by the state-wide program, the College of Engineering, the Berkeley Pledge, and various donors — currently collaborates with schools from four area districts on outreach activities ranging from summer and Saturday workshops, after-school enrichment programs, parents programs, science competitions, and visits to the Berkeley campus. Have a story you want to share about Wilbur Somerton or the MESA program? We want to hear from you... For the elementary students who participate, this might mean an afternoon building a tower of plastic straws to demonstrate structural engineering principles or learning physics by transforming mousetraps into speedy toy cars. Meanwhile, high school students might attend rigorous Saturday or summer college-preparatory courses in math, biology, and chemistry, receive advice on financial aid planning, or participate in hands-on science competitions. Somerton died last year at age 82 but his legacy lives on in the tens of thousands of educationally-disadvantaged young people in California whose inclination toward science and engineering are fueled by MESA. Eighty-five percent of California MESA's high school graduates go on to college, compared with 50 percent of all the state's high school graduates. Equally impressive, 12 percent of engineering degrees awarded across the country to underrepresented students were earned by California MESA graduates. UC Berkeley MESA California MESA Lab Notes is published online by the Public Affairs Office of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering. The Lab Notes mission is to illuminate groundbreaking research underway today at the College of Engineering that will dramatically change our lives tomorrow. Editor, Director of Public Affairs: Teresa Moore Writer, Researcher: David Pescovitz Designer: Robyn Altman Subscribe or send comments to the Engineering Public Affairs Office: lab-notes@coe.berkeley.edu. © 2002 UC Regents. Updated 11/26/02.