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Our
Town
Essay Lands Local Science Whiz Aerospace Internship
Compton High’s
Ernesto Villasenor receives first-place honors at June 5 science competition
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin
Staff Writer
A
love for science and math is proving fruitful for 16-year-old Ernesto
Villasenor, a local high school student who is set to begin a paid
summer internship with a world-renowned aerospace company based in
El Segundo on Monday.
Villasenor clenched the opportunity last month, when he took first
place in an essay contest at the Robert H. Herndon Memorial Science Competition
held June 5 at The Aerospace Corporation. He beat out submissions from
17 area high schools.
The paper, said the high school junior, was loosely based on the
technical paper he worked on as part of Compton High School’s MESA
(Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) team, which this past school
year competed in a trebuchet competition.
A trebuchet is similar to a catapult, but it uses gravity instead
of tension to launch its load. Trebuchet technology dates at least as far
back as the first century, when it was used by the Chinese.
“I think what won the paper for me was the depth of my explanations,” said
Villasenor in a telephone interview last Tuesday. “I was using physics
and math concepts and applying those concepts to the trebuchet.”
According to Victoria Hill, the Compton team’s aerospace adviser
from The Aerospace Corporation, submitted essays had to feature a scientific
topic and were judged by employees and members of the Space and Missile
Systems Center.
The four-member MESA team from Compton High in March secured the
gold in a MESA-sponsored preliminary national design competition but in
an upset did not advance in the regional competition in April.
MESA adviser and Tarbabe science teacher Jack Moses said the team
took its trebuchet project to the Robert H. Herndon Memorial Science Competition
at the suggestion of Compton High alumna Sharon Whitehead, who works at
The Aerospace Corporation.
For nearly 50 years, the company has operated as a federally funded
research and development center in support of national-security, civil
and commercial space programs.
Lt. Gen. Bernard Schriever of the U.S. Air Force Ballistic Missile
Division headquarters in El Segundo announced its formation on June 25,
1960. The aim was to form a unique nonprofit corporation that would serve
the Air Force in the scientific and technical planning and management of
its missile space programs.
The corporation established the competition in 1977 in homage to
the late Robert H. Herndon, an aerospace engineer and manager who served
as a mentor to many employees. The event at El Segundo targets middle and
high school students in Los Angeles County.
“The competition events are designed to stimulate interest among
minority students in science, engineering and technology, and increase
diversity
across the aerospace industry,” according to information provided
by Hill, who works in network systems.
Compton’s team did not place in the experiment segment of the competition,
however Villasenor’s essay received top honors. In addition to the
internship, he also received a $500 savings bond.
Elaine Harrell, a representative from the corporation’s Human Resources
division in charge of internships, said Villasenor will work as a support
staffer in the office systems area of the company, providing technical
support to computer technicians.
“He’s a bright young man. We’re very pleased to have
him on board,” she said. “We’re looking forward to his
contributions.”
Moses, who has taught at Compton High for 13 years after leaving
a 25-year engineering career, has been co-advising the school’s MESA
club for nine years.
He describes Villasenor as “hard working” and “enthusiastic.”
Besides MESA, the 10th grader participates in the Student Leadership
Council, served as his class president this past school year and is part
of the Teen Court program.
On top of all his honors and Advanced Placement classes, he also
made time to take courses at two local community colleges. Villasenor studied
accelerated French at Los Angeles Southwest College and accelerated math
right here in the Hub City at El Camino College Compton Center.
His GPA hovers somewhere between 4.0 and 4.25, he said.
“I’ve been interested in engineering ever since I can remember,” he
told The Bulletin earlier this spring. “When I was a little kid,
I was always playing with the Legos.”
Born in Compton, Villasenor refers to himself as “a Compton kid.” He
attended Kennedy Elementary before going on to Walton Middle School, where
his seventh grade math teacher recommended he join the MESA program.
“That’s when I started doing more complex projects involving
engineering principles,” he said. “I would say the funnest
thing about engineering is the hands-on learning, just building it and
starting from
scratch.”
But engineering isn’t all he’s interested in. Although Villasenor
has narrowed down his college choices to the California Institute of Technology
or Princeton, the ambitious youth is still trying to figure out whether
to major in astrophysics, math, mechanical engineering or neuroscience.
“With the internship, I’m really excited because I think it’s
going to help me decide what I want to major in in college, ” he
said.
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