Temple Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Richard Englert, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and Jamie Bracey, director of STEM education, outreach and research in the College of Engineering, cut the ribbon to officially launch the Pennsylvania Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) initiative during a ceremony at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

Sixty middle and high school students from the Philadelphia School District, along with their parents, joined university leaders, top Navy commanders — including U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead — and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter in the ribbon cutting, which celebrated Temple receiving the license to bring the national award-winning MESA program to Pennsylvania.

“The launch of the MESA Pennsylvania, and our investment in youth you see here today is just the beginning of a carefully-crafted movement to partner with families, school districts, elected officials, community leaders and companies to build a solid STEM workforce that we will need to compete economically in a global environment,” said Temple Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Richard Englert. “Temple has been a key leader in supporting community efforts to bring high-quality STEM education to the students of Philadelphia and the surrounding region.”

The MESA initiative is designed to increase the number of scientists, technologists, engineers and related professionals who are able to graduate from a two- or four-year institution; and to diversify American students who achieve advanced degrees leading to research and development to create new products and to support the nation’s defense. Over the past 40 years, nearly 70 percent of MESA students — many of them minorities and women — have entered STEM fields.

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