Sarkis and Ashot Ter-Martirosyan are the co-presidents of the MESA Club on our campus. They’re both seniors who were born to immigrant parents and raised in California. Both Sarkis and Ashot are passionate about STEM, most notably programming and coding. They hope to bring more STEM representation onto our campus, as well as get more people interested in this field.

The Ter-Martirosyan twins started their MESA journey back in middle school when they wanted to take the concepts that they learned in class and apply them to the real world. They chose the MESA Club, out of all the other groups on campus, because of how many STEM opportunities it offered them. So they stuck with the organization from middle school into high school, and soon they hope to expand on their passion for STEM at the university level.

MESA, which stands for Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement, is especially needed here in GHS. “This school specifically, compared to others like [Crescenta Valley High School], is lacking a lot of technology-based classes,” Ashot claimed. 

The brothers also wanted to give everyone the same hands-on experience with STEM that they had received in middle school. “I think that’s very important, especially in this time where things are changing all the time with [technologies] such as AI,” Ashot said. “It’s essential to have that hands-on experience.”

Funnily enough, both of the twins are planning to major in computer science in college. “The thing about computer science is that you have to solve problems all the time, and I enjoy doing that and challenging myself,” Sarkis said.

“When we were young we got very interested in games, and for the last couple of…years, that has grown on us,” Ashot added. “So we love to get hands-on with programming and hands-on with coding.”

According to Sarkis and Ashot, promoting this club has been a struggle. “Because there are so many clubs [on campus], we wanted MESA to stand out, so we put a lot of effort into putting MESA’s name everywhere,” Ashot said. “We didn’t want it to just fall by the wayside.” 

“When you say math in front of students, they kind of just shudder in fear, so we wanted to promote the field trips and activities because that’s the core of MESA” Sarkis elaborated. “It’s not just sitting down and doing worksheets. You’re doing that hands-on work, and that’s what we’re trying to tell our peers.”

Joining the MESA Club also gives you many opportunities.“I’ve noticed that while I was doing my college applications, you needed a lot of STEM experience,” Ashot claimed. “Some things I answered were from MESA because it gives you experience directly.” MESA Club members also have opportunities to meet and work with students from across the country, who all have an interest in STEM.

If you would like to join the MESA Club and meet people with a similar devoted mindset in STEM, you can join their Remind: @mesaclub24, or you can contact Sarkis and Ashot Ter-Martirosyan through email.