12/20/2024
On Dec. 13 campus and community partners filled the lobby of EWU’s Computing and Engineering Building to celebrate the grand opening of the MESA Student Center, a new hub designed to support student success.
The ribbon-cutting event attracted more than 100 attendees including EWU’s own MESA students, along with elementary and middle school students who’d participated in summer STEM camps. (A few of those young scientists helped adults learn the chemistry of creating lip balm and liquid-nitrogen ice cream.)Three future scientists from MESA programs at Lewis and Clark High School and Westwood Middle School were awarded tokens for future scholarship awards at EWU.
The Lewis and Clark High team had won regionals and taken second in state for a project combining an affordable washing machine with website support to help the region’s unhoused population keep their clothing clean. The Westwood team won regional, state and national competitions for their prototype early-warning system to assist with wildfire evacuations.
Sezi Fleming, executive director of the statewide Washington MESA program, was among a delegation of state officials attending the reception. She credits Bowman, her predecessor, Gregory King, and support from the state legislature for making the EWU MESA possible, saying “I think this became a good conversation at the right time with the right energy and the right folks around the table.”
Within a few short months of opening, the center, located inside the CEB, has become a one-stop for tutoring, advising, resume workshops, guest speakers, and other helpful services for students who often arrive as the first in their families to attend college and can sometimes feel alienated by the college experience. The center and its resources are accessible to all EWU students taking STEM courses.
As part of MESA, the university is also offering co-horted math classes for a first time. Math classes that are part of a MESA cohort have the same instructor all year long, a teaching assistant who tutors in the MESA Student Center, and smaller class caps.
Read the Full Story Written b@easternwashingtonuniversity
