Irvine program sets the bar high for Compton students

The MESA pre-college program at UC Irvine is raising the bar for academic achievement and college attendance among students in one of the most educationally disadvantaged areas of the state: the Los Angeles community of Compton.

In addition to exceeding a college-going rate of 75 percent, many graduating MESA seniors from among the 800 students the program serves in the Compton Unified School District have earned admission to top universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCLA.

Some are honored with 100-percent scholarships reserved for high-performing students who overcome hardships and gain admission to a university. In 2005, valedictorians from all three of the district’s high schools were MESA students.

“College was not an expectation for me until
I started MESA,” said Stanford University sophomore Judith Sandoval, a MESA graduate and 2004 valedictorian of Dominguez High School. “The program was the catalyst that got me here and helped me develop the strengths I needed to get into a college like this.”

Like all MESA students interviewed for this story, Sandoval is the first generation in her family to attend college. Like many, her parents, who migrated from Mexico, did not complete elementary school. She started the program in eighth grade, but her parents wouldn’t allow her to participate in ninth and tenth grade because she did not have a safe ride home from campus after her MESA period ended.

“I want to show people at my college what someone who comes from Compton can do,” said Brigham Young University freshman Jesse Del Toro, 2005 Dominguez High valedictorian, MESA graduate and Gates Millennium scholar. “ MESA got me interested in engineering and kept me on track with test preparation. Most students never get a chance to learn about these opportunities because they don’t have the same access to resources as affluent districts. But thanks to MESA, they do.”

Compton Unified is made up of 32,000 students attending 39 schools. The district is composed of 99.6-percent minority students with more than a 97-percent federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) poverty level.

“Every kid who grows up in Compton has to struggle with discouragement and negative attitudes,” said Sandoval. “If you tell people you plan to go to a good college like Harvard, they would laugh at you.”

Compton Unified emerged in 2003 from 10 years of state control imposed to retrieve the district from academic and financial bankruptcy. The district has worked hard to come back from its nadir. School facilities have improved, the district’s first new school in 30 years was built, the school environment became safer, test scores increased dramatically and the district has rid itself of debt.

“Of all my school activities, MESA was my favorite,” said UC Berkeley freshman Margarita Landeros, 2005 Compton High School valedictorian (the salutatorian that year, MESA graduate Leslie Jimenez, now attends Harvard University). “They gave us everything we needed and pushed us hard. We all relied on MESA—it was the program that made us successful.”

Along with Sandoval and a handful of her classmates, Landeros founded the MESA Student Leadership Council, a representative body of students from each of the district’s high schools and middle schools. The council was formed to support efforts to increase student academic performance, college opportunity and community involvement. “ MESA created that bond for us,” said Landeros. “It felt like a family instead of the typical high school rivalry.”

Now active in the council is Dominguez High junior Cecilia Leyva, ranked first in her sophomore class with a 4.0 grade point average. “ MESA has made a lot of progress in our district,” she said. “Without it, we would not have such a significant number of graduates going to UC and CSU.”

Leyva is the eldest of five children. Her parents completed the equivalent of sixth and seventh grade. “I am the first to break the curse,” she said.

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