MESA is Busy at LBHS!

As we enter our 3rd year at Los Banos High School, the MESA program has been off to a great start this year.  We’ve done many things so far into the school year such as doing our Bake Sales at Home football games, to partnering up with other clubs that go on field trips that promote education.  Also, this year we had some changes.  We transitioned to having one Advisor, changed the times we have meetings, and having new leadership members that are new to the club ready and eager to learn the MESA ways. Despite some of the changes we have had, our MESA program is up & running and even better than before.

On September 21st we had our Parent Orientation Meeting.  There we informed parents what MESA was about and the benefits it has in their children’s academic & career path.  It was a great turnout seeing so many parents attending interested in their child’s learning path.

This year we have a total of 55 fully enrolled members, some which are new and returning members.  We have our leadership meetings every Monday during lunch and our MESA meetings every Tuesday during lunch which is done & presented by the leadership team.  Our meetings have been a success having many members attending.  Adding to this our leadership team & advisor are working hard each week to make our club a success.

Just recently some of our MESA Members took a trip last week with the Environmental Club to Yosemite National Park.  There students had the opportunity to explore the valley floor or go on a hike to the top of Vernal Falls.  It was a breathe taking sight seeing the entire natural scene around us. 

During the month of October we did some interesting new things. For instance we found a new way of fundraising money for our club.  At our school we have green recycling bins around the whole campus.  We asked the school if we can recycle them since other clubs were doing the same.  So that whole month we collected and sorted cans out.  Also, our school held its first Halloween Carnival which different clubs from the schools set up booths promoting their club & having students participate in their booths activity.  We had students play “Pin the Hat on the Witch” or do a crossword/word search and sold some lollipop ghosts that we made.

Although this is our 3rd year as a MESA group, we’ve done some pretty interesting things.  If it weren’t for the leadership team & our advisor working hard to keep this program running we wouldn’t know what else to do and of course the help and support of our MESA members.

Hope you enjoy what our MESA school site has done to spread and spark the interest of future coming leaders.

Citrus MESA- 80 members and growing!

So far this year in MESA it has been interesting and exciting. When the school year began we had a straw tower competition to convince students to join. We currently have over 80 members.

We formed an awesome leadership group, some of whom went to CSU Fresno for training in September.

In MESA elective class we started out creating project posters and presenting the rules.  We have practiced engineering skills with paper towers and another fun competition where the only materials were spaghetti noodles and marshmallows.  We applied the principals of bridge building with KNeX and then made Manila File Folder Bridges for competition.

For the first Saturday Academy we took close to 30 students.  They participated in many activities and one of them won 2nd place in the Rube Goldberg competition.   Our goal for the next academy is to take at least 40 members.

Ten of our 8th grade students are traveling to Catalina Island with Fresno MESA.  They are all looking forward to the trip.