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 … [Read more...]

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 involvementfrom the family. Ultimately, this hinges on support from the community. " Almost all of the students families were either from Michoacan or Oaxaca, Mexico. … [Read more...]