Success Stories
Roxana Ayala, GIS Scholar, goes to the White House
As part of the annual White House Science fair, our student Roxana Ayala was invited in May 2014, to represent Roosevelt High School and GIS Education at this event. The Science Fair coincided with President Barack Obama’s call to help strengthen STEM education through the ConnectED Initiative, Esri president Jack Dangermond announced that Esri will provide a grant to make its advanced mapping software available for free to the more than 100,000 elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States. Click here to read an article in the Huffington Post about how our work at MSTMA with GIS technology has had a life changing effect on our students.
Roosevelt High School students map social inequalities
Our students Vanessa Ochoa, Jeanette Gomez, Paola Gomez, Selene Hernandez, Marisa Garcia, & Robert Gudino created a BMI Map below was featured as part of the 2014 ESRI User Conference in San Diego, within the Youth Community GIS Exhibit. This map pinpoints 207 Los Angeles County high school’s. It conveys the results of the yearly Fitness exam of each Los Angeles County high school, pertaining to the percentage of the student population at health risk according to their Body Mass Index. The base map is the 2013 average household income in LA County. Students mapped the results to see which areas are presently the ones with the highest at health risk rates. Their research was also featured in the local publication, Boyle Heights Beat. Click here to read the article.
Roosevelt High School students present at ESRI UC
Students Roxana Ayala, Stephanie Ortiz, Uriel Gonzalez, and Alexander Cosio from Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights presented a demonstration of mapping projects at the 2013 Esri User Conference, in San Diego!
Using GIS technology in our classrooms, the students worked on research projects throughout the school year and presented their findings in front of hundreds of industry professionals and STEM advocates. Their projects focused on addressing problems they identified in our neighborhood of Boyle Heights and South Central Los Angeles, by using data to educate and empower.
Along the way, the students received valuable mentorship from Esri staff members, especially Charlie Fitzpatrick, Manager of K-12 Education, as well as from Enrique Legaspi from the i.am.angel Foundation. Watch Video here.