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BUILD A HIGH-TECH WORKFORCE WITH MESA

When David Davenport was in high school, he discovered something that changed his life—he was good at math and science and enjoyed solving real-world problems with these tools.  This insight came as a result of participating in Colorado MESA.  Now an IBM engineer, David also became chairperson for the Denver chapter of National Society of Black Engineers. 

 

The Need.

If Colorado is to maintain its high-tech edge, it needs a properly trained and motivated work force prepared to pursue the passionate purpose of innovation creation. What people, employers, and the state need are MESAs—programs which encourage students to reach their potential in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).  Education and support are the answers.

 

What is MESA?

Colorado MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) is a state-wide pre-college program that provides after school math- and science-based learning activities to over 3,600 preK-12 students(in 2009), over 78% of whom are from ethnic and gender groups that are under represented in engineering career fields.  Founded in 1980 as a part of the non-profit Colorado Minorities Engineering Association (CMEA), MESA's mission is to increase the numbers of economically disadvantaged and at risk students who graduate from high school fully prepared for post secondary education in math- and science-based fields. 

 

MESA model works!

MESA after-school programs engage students in hands-on inquiry based projects such as designing mousetrap-powered vehicles, wind turbines, and robots.  MESA advisors, usually math/science teachers along with university student mentors and practicing engineers, help students discover relevant math/science principles necessary to achieve success with their project.  Local, state, and national engineering-based competitions provide additional motivation to keep students involved.

 

The state MESA office at the University of Colorado Denver provides advisor training, program materials, and academic resources.  MESA Centers at CU and CSU in provide stimulating project-based curriculum, career speakers, and roles models.  Field trips to business sites, colleges, science fairs, and engineering-based competitions excite students about career opportunities.  Parents are critical supporters.

 

MESA in Colorado.

MESA works with 156 schools in 24 school districts throughout the state in collaboration with eight universities/colleges.  Michele Towers, MESA Center Director at CU-Boulder (michele.towers@cudenver.edu), supports Boulder, Jefferson, Denver and Arapahoe counties.  The CSU Center in Fort Collins oversees northern Colorado including Larimer, Weld, and Adams counties.

 

While MESA has taken root in Longmont and other Weld County communities, more schools can participate. For example, programs exist at Angevine Middle in Boulder, Centaurus High in Lafayette, and Broomfield High.  Boulder County needs champions to start more programs.

 

How Businesses Benefit and Are Involved.

Companies are looking to hire a qualified high-tech workforce. Matthew Smith, an executive from United Launch Alliance (www.ulalaunch.com) a MESA sponsor, said, "The average age of the United Launch Alliance workforce today is 47. As more of our workers retire over the next 10 years, we need qualified graduates.  That is why we sponsor MESA."

 

Colorado MESA currently receives no state funding.  Support comes from community and corporate organizations such as The Denver Foundation, Lockheed Martin, The Daniels Fund, Xcel Energy, Ball Aerospace, Northrop Grumman, and others. 

 

MESA Delivers Results. 

At a time when Colorado needs a highly-skilled, technical workforce, MESA allows qualified students to enter the workforce pipeline and it does it for under $125 per student per year.

 

100% of MESA seniors graduate from high school and historically, more than 90% have enrolled in college with over 80% enrolling in a math/science related major.  Approximately 85% of MESA students are from families in the low-to-moderate income bracket.  Approximately 50% are from ethnic groups underrepresented in math-based careers. 

 

“Every experience and memory I got from the MESA club will always live with me.  I owe a lot to the MESA club, because without it, I would never had these incredible experiences,” says Ernesto Chairez, graduate from Career Education Center in Longmont, attending CU- Boulder in the Fall 2009 majoring in Aerospace Engineering. 

 

How You Can Get Involved?

·     Help the kids in your life learn to love mathematics and science.

·     Ask your schools to sponsor a MESA program. 

·     Volunteer, make a donation, become a sponsor, create an internship or scholarship. 

·     Become a sponsor or volunteer for the October 15-16 MESA Fall Fling at CSU-Fort Collins.  Around 250 MESA high school students will taste university life, gain valuable academic, financial aid, and career information, and participate in Boat Building and Wind Energy engineering competitions. Learn more at www.cMESA.org.

 

Do you have MESA in your business or life?  Like David Davenport, who continues to champion multicultural engineering programs, support MESA and help build a stronger high-tech workforce.

 

Theresa M. Szczurek (www.TMSworld.com and www.PursuitofPassionatePurpose.com)

 

Copyright © 2009 Theresa M. Szczurek. All Rights Reserved.

WHERE IS YOUR MESA?

WOW!  Today while participating in the MESA awards breakfast in Denver, I saw encouragement for "Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement" among middle schoolers and high schoolers from across the country. MESA, www.cMESA.org, brought these kids, mostly minority and female teens, together with a meaningful purpose. This is what our country needs -- a young generation prepared to pursue a passionate purpose of innovation creation. Education is the answer. Here's how and why you can support this effort. 

I think back on my own experience in high school -- what a program like MESA would have done for me and many other students.  Even though I loved math and science there was no practical forum to put these skills to use to solve real world problems and to learn about career options. There was no one to encourage me to pursue a career in engineering. Not knowing exactly what I would do with it, I did pursue a degree in Mathematics.  Good fortune and a connection through a friend brought me to my first job out of college as a Member of Technical Staff with Bell Telephone Laboratories. This changed my life.  What more people need are MESAs -- programs which encourage you to reach your potential.

Companies are looking to hire qualified engineers. Matthew Smith, an executive from United Launch Alliance (www.ulalaunch.com) one of MESA's sponsors said, "The average age of the United Launch Alliance workforce today is 47. As more of our workers retire over the next 10 years, we need more qualified graduates.  That is why we sponsor MESA."

The program is designed to encourage minority and female students to prepare themselves for a college education and to major in mathematics, engineering or science.  MESA's mission is to increase the numbers of economically disadvantaged and at risk students who graduate from high school fully prepared for post secondary education in engineering, mathematics, science, computer science, business, and other math- and science-based fields.

What are you doing to help others to get educated in math, engineering and science?  Here are some PRACTICAL POINTERS on you can do:

• Help the kids in your life learn to love mathematics. Encourage them. Show them that math and science are fun.
• Ask your middle and high schools to sponsor a MESA program.  If your state does not have MESA, ask why not?
• Volunteer, make a donation, become a sponsor, or create an internship.  Learn more at www.cMESA.org.

Did you or do you have MESA in your life?  Help create one today so you and others can successfully pursue passionate purpose.

Theresa Szczurek (www.TMSworld.com and www.PursuitofPassionatePurpose.com)

OBAMA SAYS TO AMERICA: PURSUE PASSIONATE PURPOSE

With the historical inauguration on 1/20/2009, record numbers of Americans and citizens of the world paused to listen. President Obama's message ignited millions of people. Many were moved to tears or felt goose bumps and tingles up their spine. Why?

As summarized in the Denver Post on 1/21/09, "The president's much-anticipated inaugural speech fused inspirational rhetoric with pragmatic goals aimed at compelling Americans to act while reassuring them that the country can rise to the occasion." The inaugural address tapped into a ancient, universal and sacred process that has been proven to help people produce extraordinary results -- the results needed by America and the world. Here is an overview of how Obama's message utilized the four-step process, called the "Pursuit of Passionate Purpose" process (www.PursuitofPassionatePurpose.com), to inspire hope, courage, and action.

Assess Progress.

Obama honestly assessed the current situation, "We are in the midst of a crisis..our nation is at war...our economy is badly weakened...our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and ... the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land--a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable and that the next generation must lower its sights. Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met." Built from this honest assessment, the new president then reaffirmed our passion, connected it with our purpose, and established a clear plan of action to pursue.

Find Passion.

Passion is the fuel of any pursuit. It is found in the alignment of values with core competencies. Obama restated what we stand for, "We're guided on a path by core values and what our system stands for. Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true."

Our core competencies are many as Obama explains, "It has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are...productive. Our minds are...inventive, our goods and services...needed. Our capacity remains undiminished." Obama also stated, "Our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth."

Align Passion with Purpose.

Passion alone is aimless, it must be aligned with a meaningful purpose. As Victor Frankl concludes in Man's Search For Meaning, "There is a human need for purpose." Obama connected our values and gifts, our passion, with a noble purpose, "On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit,... to carry forward that noble idea that ...all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. We understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. The success of our economy depends not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity, on our abiity to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity -- but because it is the surest route to our common good. " Thus, our passionate purpose is to continue the journey toward freedom, greatness and common good.

Pursue Purpose.

In setting a plan with clear goals, the new president encouraged right action, "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work of remaking America." Highlighting some of the key strategic initiatives in his plan of action, the president stated, "The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and

• We will act--not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth...

• We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.

• We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.

• We will transform our schools and colleages and universities to meet thedemands of a new age."

Obama continues:

• "We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.

• We will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet.

• Those who manage the public's dollar will be held to account--to spend wisely, reform bad habits and do our business in the light of day."

Having a plan is not enough. It takes courage and action to pursue it. Obama charged Americans to pursue this passionate purpose and in so doing reap the real rewards of meaning and satisfaction, "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility--a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

And so President Obama on this historic inauguration inspired Americans and the world to 'Believe and Act' and in so doing continue to bring forth the great gift of freedom.

Theresa M. Szczurek (www.TMSworld.com and www.PursuitofPassionatePurpose.com)

YOUR WORK AND LIFE AS A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

If you slow down enough to be mindful, you might notice and treasure the spirituality of every day life and every day work. What is spirituality? It is connections -- with your self, with other living thngs, to nature, and to the greater spirit. These connections nourish the soul. When asked in my "Pursuit of Passionate Purpose" research study what brings meaning to life. Most people mentioned two things -- contribution and connections. Contribution is what you get from a pursuit of passionate purpose. Connections are deep caring, meaning relationships. They are the spirit of life and the Connections Strategy is one of the six Success Strategies that facilitate forward movement on your journey.

Scott W.Alexander in his book Everyday Spiritual Practice: Simple Pathways for Enriching Your Life encourages intentional, active, and regular practice by engaging the mind, body, heart, will, and soul. How do you engage and connect? Here are some ways to engage.

• Engage the mind through meditation, prayer, affirmations, journaling, planning, writing, speaking, and silence.

• Engage the body through exercise, dance, yoga, eating, singing, and other physical activity.

• Engage the heart through everyday relationships, grieving, parenting, and partnership.

• Engage the will through recycling, social justice activities, vegetarianism, volunteering, giving, and working toward a cause.

• Engage the soul through music, cooking, art, gardening, story telling, and meditation.

Passionate purpose optimally engaged your whole self, or spirit, as well as others in the pursuit. The pursuit is consistent with the common myth about the hero's journey. The hero leaves home in service of a worthwhile purpose, encounters obstacles and hindrances, eventually succeeds, and returns home to be of further service. Work and life is our story of living this myth.

What is your spiritual maintenance schedule on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis? Have you, like me, built spirituality through engagement and connections into your personal action plan? This practice can bring the peak performance you seek. Begin now! Believe and Act!

Theresa M. Szczurek (www.TMSworld.com and www.PursuitofPassionatePurpose.com)

A NOBLE PURPOSE FOR ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND BUSINESS

In talking recently with John Trefny, President Emeritus, Colorado School of Mines, he mentioned, "What are some of the problems faced by society?  It is obvious that many of these are driven by one primary cause – population growth!"

Population Growth Brings Challenges.  Trefny continues, "We are literally in a race against time to address such challenges as:  World health; food supply; the depletion of natural resources including materials, non-renewable energy and water; a deteriorating infrastructure in developed countries and the total lack of same in developing ones; serious challenges to our environment; and many more."

Where are the Solutions?  Besides the clear and sometimes 'politically incorrect' focus to limit  population growth, the world needs the development and diffusion of appropriate technical solutions.

Noble Purpose of Engineers and Scientists.  Trefny continues, "Now, more than ever, we need universities to develop engineers and scientists who will take responsibility as leaders to:
• accurately assess the carrying capacity of our planet;
• communicate clearly the physical realities that constrain us;
• develop all technologies possible for indefinite supplies of energy including the technologies that will bridge between non-renewables and renewables;
• optimize farming and the generation of crops for food, energy, and materials;
• develop efficient recycling of all materials, mining in effect what has already been used;
• plan not just for 2020 but indefinitely into the future for the sustainability of mankind; and
• who can envision not only that sustainable future, but can also help steer it towards the noble purposes of which we are all capable.

Take a look at Trefny's longer discussion on this topic at http://coloradohigherednews.com/Pages/Archive.php?id=357

Beyond Education to Pursuit of this Noble Passionate Purpose. Even the best technical solutions are not enough.  They need to be successfully implemented and widely used. Technologists must work with business application experts, marketers, and many others to stimulate wide diffusion.  World citizens, its our job to be hopeful and take positive action to save Mother Earth. Together we can make a difference. 

Theresa M. Szczurek (www.TMSworld.com)