A Memorable Experience

I have been a member on the robotics team for the past four years. Robotics has been one of the most meaningful activities that I took part in during my entire high school experience. As a freshman, I participated as a member of the team not knowing what I was getting my self into. By the time I was a sophomore student team member, I was already given student leadership positions by the coaches. I was responsible for leading a sub-team within the team. This may not seem like much, but as a second year team member, this was a huge deal. I led the team to success when we won the New Jersey VEX regional.

Current team leadership must have seen something impressive in me because they decided to give me another leadership position the following year. However, this time, it was an even more important role. As a junior, I was responsible for a major mechanical element of the robot. I needed to design and build the drive system, the element that gives the robot the ability to move. This was an extreme success. The system worked beautifully throughout the entire season.

Again, the coaches must have seen something else in me. As a senior on the team, I was made given the position as one of two team CEO’s. This is the highest position that could be held by a student on the team. There was on CEO from Pascack Hills HS and one from Pascack Valley HS.

Some people may not understand the true importance of being involved in FIRST robotics. It may seem that the only point is to build and compete with a robot created by a team of high school students. The true importance of the competition lies within the leadership and communication skills that each student involved gains.

This season, FIRST Robotics added one more award to their arsenal of recognition. This award was named the Dean’s List Award Finalist. This award is in recognition of Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST Robotics (as well as the inventor of the segway). This is the only award that recognizes students individually. There are many other awards that recognize teams as a whole, but none that recognize the students.

Each time is allowed to nominate two students. I was honored to find out that my team had decided to nominate me as one of their student nominations.

Towards the end of the competition, I was totally shocked to hear my name called as one of the two Dean’s List Finalists at the New Jersey regional. This makes me one of 92 students in the world to be selected for this award. It felt amazing to be recognized for my commitment to spreading the message of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs to other students with the hope of getting them interested in robotics.

This is just one of many life-changing experiences I encountered while being a member of FIRST Robotics, FRC, Team 1676; One that I will never forget.