Why Oregon MEChA Statewide Is Closing the Achievement Gap.

Fourteen years after the founding of Oregon MEChA Statewide, the '08 MEChA Leadership Institute gathered student officers from around the state at Mt Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, last Friday, Nov. 7th. We were warmly welcomed to the campus by the chapter advisor, Ms Elizabeth Perry. In a room of 31 officers, board member and Western Oregon University alumn Ms Eloina Franco posed the question,

"How many of you have anyone in your family that has graduated college?"

Only 1 hand shot up. Exactly, that's why Oregon MEChA Statewide is here. To close this achievement gap.

The Institute has been closing the high school achievement gap since it was first launched. Aimed at the high school MEChA student officers, these students learn about good study habits, college entrance exams, life in college, running effective meetings, taking minutes, fundraising, recruiting members, and in general being good citizen role models. Some want to study engineering, others business. Some want to start at a community college, others want to go straight to a four-year.

I was pleased to run into Mr Jerardo Marquez of the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. His group awards scholarships annually, this years' application opens Dec 1, 2008. Forty-nine hardworking students received help last year, $145K total awarded. Marquez noted that the average award is between $2-5K. Board member, Mr Juan Mayoral, a retired U.S. Army Paratrooper and Portland State University alumn also expressed his delight of this year's Institute. I was glad to see Mayoral still pounding the ground for these bright students. I was also invited by the college MEChistAs from Western Oregon University promoting the 2009 MEChA Regional Conference. Their hope is that through their conference they can expose these Latino students to the college atmosphere, and perhaps recruit a few to the Monmouth campus. Again, closing the achievement gap.

Last month, the board had asked if I would present a 50-minute workshop on effective meetings. I agreed. The bright, smart and articulate MEChA high school students that I witnessed as a presenter at this year's Institute was super reassuring. Ladies, and gentlemen with these students, their supporting families and their advisors closing the achievement gap is closing. To the attendees and advisors, as promised I've embedded my powerpoint below using SlideShare. Let me know if you run into any issues clicking through. As always I look forward to your thoughts and comments.

Enjoy! -David Molina, Co-Founder/CEO, BilingualHire

The Effective Meeting

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mecha meetings)

How 4-H Tech Wizards Are Preparing Future Latino Robotics Engineers.

This afternoon I listened intently to Radio Tonalli, a Spanish Radio Talk show program on Portland's KBOO 90.7FM hosted by Edith Molina featuring 18 Latino high school students from 4-H Tech Wizards. Like many of the dozens of Latino callers, I was impressed with the attitude, courage and conviction these young students have in the science fields. Their passion for the sciences was refreshing, empowering and inspirational. After graduation the students want to study: robotics, botany, computer engineering, geography, architecture, pharmacy, new media, internet marketing, and film just to name a few. Did someone say robotics? This group headed by Cecilia and Oktavio, team leaders of this 4-H group was impressive. As Oktavio stated on student success,

"Students need to have conviction. Once accepted, we seek active involvement
from the family. Ultimately, this hinges on support from the community. "

Almost all of the students families were either from Michoacan or Oaxaca, Mexico. What happened to the students from Nayarit? Impressive indeed.

Just who is served by this program?
According to Tech Wizards Program FAQs, the focus is on,

"underserved at-risk youth in Washington County. Based on a recent survey, the
highest drop out rate is currently among the Latino community. Our initial
project is focused on helping these youth, however, as funding
allows, we want to extend this program to include all at-risk youth in our
community."

Future Latino Scientists, Engineers.
The students under the direction of Cecilia and Oktavio are under good hands. Oktavio and I worked on several media projects during our college days at Oregon State University. After listening to the enthusiasm, excitement and optimism from these 4-H Latino students about their interests in studying robotics and GIS, I was reminded of my visit to MIT. The Hotel@MIT where Edith and I stayed at earlier this year was decked out w/ encased robots, and the engineering feats of MIT students and faculty.

These 18 Latino students, and the thousands of others in the program deserve the support of the entire business community, and our state government officials to ensure these programs continue to get funded. They deserve our appreciation and support for their conviction to be the inventors of new services and products that will enhance our lives in the future. And of course Intel and Oregon State University deserves our debt of gratitude for their conviction in backing, developing and preparing these future computer engineers, film makers, botanists, pharmacists, geologists, and architects.

What do you think about the 4-H Tech Wizards Program and the 18 future engineers, botanists and architects? What suggestions would you give to increase the number of bilingual scientists in the U.S., in Oregon? Your turn. As always I look forward to your thoughts and comments. -David Molina, Co-Founder/CEO, BilingualHire