California State University, Northridge

PRESS RELEASE

March 7, 1996

Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler, (818) 885-2130, or
Jerralyn Kurowski
(818) 700-5920

CSUN Tests Skills of Oxnard Students

Students from four Oxnard high schools will compete in a series of engineering-related contests organized by Cal State Northridge at the Oxnard Community Center on Tuesday, March 19.

The event, scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the center at 800 Hobson Way in Oxnard, will feature competitions in the construction of paper sail cars, paper airplanes, foil boats, toothpick oil derricks, balsawood derricks, balsawood bridges, and egg dropping. The contestants are from Rio Mesa, Channel Islands, Oxnard and Hueneme high schools.

Judging the contests will be engineers from the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division; Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division; and the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

The event is sponsored by the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) program at California State University, Northridge.

MESA, which operates at the four Oxnard high schools, works to increase the number of historically underrepresented students who study mathematics, engineering, and physical sciences. The program targets middle and senior high school students and provides academic and career advisement, as well as enrichment programs, scholarships and social and family activities.