Media Contact:
Libby Siebens, community relations executive director, 509-682-6436 (Mon.-Thurs.)

Wenatchee Valley College (WVC) was selected as one of six Washington community and technical colleges to receive a Washington State MESA Community College Expansion grant. The MESA Community College program goal is to recruit 100 underrepresented and minority students to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors.

The state legislature together with Washington MESA and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges is providing $125,000 annually to WVC to fund these efforts. WVC will soon be one of 12 community colleges offering MESA programs.

The grant will help fund a MESA student center, which is designed to provide academic and support services to MESA students. The center will be opened on the Wenatchee campus in the Eller-Fox Science Center. It will include a study space and computers. Renovations on the space will begin winter quarter.

The MESA program will include advising and tutoring in the STEM fields for students selected to participate, which will take place in the center. MESA students will also take academic excellence workshops, develop three-year educational plans, and will have summer internship and job opportunities that are secured for them by a MESA program director. In addition, the MESA grant will also fund outreach efforts to recruit underrepresented high school students into STEM programs and career pathways.

MESA, which stands for “mathematics, engineering, science achievement,” was established in 1982. The MESA Community College Program began in Washington in 2009.

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Wenatchee Valley College enriches North Central Washington by serving educational and cultural needs of communities and residents throughout the service area. The college provides high-quality transfer, liberal arts, professional/technical, basic skills and continuing education for students of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. Visit our website, www.wvc.edu