Local Students Teams Placed First, Third in Nationwide Competition

Students participating in the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement program, which is administered by the UA, placed at the top in a nationwide design competition.

For the third consecutive year, local high school students took first place in a nationwide competition that is part of a program administered by The University of Arizona. 

The Tucson High Magnet School team placed first in the MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition, which was held over the weekend at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Also, the team of students representing Amphitheater Middle School placed third in the competition.

The Amphitheater Middle School and Tucson High Magnet School teams each consist of two young women and two young men who represented the Arizona Math, Engineering, Science Achievement, or MESA, program in the national competition.   

The teams were required to pit their modern version of an ancient counterweight trebuchet against designs created by other students from around the nation.

The Tucson High team members were Andrew Alejandre, Roxanna Garcia, Susmita Ghimire and Ernesto Somoza. The team placed first overall. 

Ernesto, who will enter the UA as a freshman studying art education in the fall, has been a member of the team all three years. Andrew Alejandre plans to study computer engineering at the UA, while Roxana Garcia and Susmita Ghimire are planning to study physiology. 

Amphitheater Middle School team members were Manuel Ahumada, Daniel Cochran, Theadora Davis and Savannah Ho. The team placed third overall in the middle school competition.

MESA promotes college preparation through hands-on math, science and engineering activities for students.

The southern Arizona MESA program is administered by the UA's Office of Early Academic Outreach through 14 high schools and 22 middle schools within and around Tucson.