L.A. Times: "University High School hopes success can be engineered"

By Mitchell Landsberg

Sometimes in the evening, long after her last class of the day, Patricia Medina has an uncommon urge. She wants to go back to school.

"I want to come at night and just, like, make something," said Patricia, a sophomore at University High School in West Los Angeles.

What could reduce an otherwise bright, engaging student to dreams of breaking and entering? In Patricia's case, it's the lure of engineering -- the chance to build a robot or design a bridge, to create something that bears no resemblance to the typical high school assignment.

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