Fostering Success Among Traditionally Underrepresented Student Groups: Hartnell College's Approach to Implementation of the Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement (Mesa) Program

Hartnell College is an accredited California Community College serving Salinas and the Salinas Valley, a vast 1,000 square mile agricultural region. The district is characterized by large numbers of migrant workers and their families, chronically high unemployment, high rates of poverty, and low educational attainment. Hartnell's 10,000 students are 67% minority, 52% Latino/a, and 82% first generation college students. Nearly 41% of the College's students are nonnative English speakers. Hartnell's Latino students face serious obstacles to postsecondary success, and far too few Latinos enroll and succeed in mathematics, science, and technology fields. Through Hartnell's MESA program, enrollment in many math and science courses have increased. More significantly, data suggests that students participating in MESA Academic Excellence Workshops have averaged a full grade increase as compared to similar students not participating in the workshops. Hartnell College's MESA program is on a static budget, and the college has expanded and leveraged program services by linking it to several on- and off-campus outreach and student support services programs. Hartnell College won the 2003 Bellwether Award in the Planning, Governance, and Finance category in recognition of this effort.