Student Talks
This season was my first time on the drive team. I felt a huge
honor to drive the robot at Worlds. I was kept busy the whole time,
doing everything from helping the mentors repair the robot after
breaking it in the previous match, to talking with judges and other
members from other drive teams. The few times we did have a break
during the competition, I would find myself in the stands talking with
the rest of the team, or looking for food with Sarah and Bret. Even
though it was really upsetting that we didn’t perform as well as I
hoped we would, and we didn’t get picked for alliance selection, the
mentors and my teammates were right there to help cheer us up. The
mentors bought us stickers to make a smiley face on the robot and
tried joking around with us. We then went with the rest of the team
to look at the activities and games FIRST had set up around the city.
We found cool things like giant Jenga and giant Battleship. The final
matches in Einstein were really close and kept me on the edge of my
seat the whole time. Just watching their drivers keep their cool and
perform how they did makes them all winners in my opinion. I would
say even though we didn’t do great at Worlds our team came out
stronger in the end and I can’t wait see what’s going to come from it
next year.
By Ben Penti
For my first time traveling with the team, I say the experience
was amazing. Meeting people from different countries and teams
from all over the USA was really cool. During the trip I learned many
things and got to see so much! Seeing all of the different robots and
the ideas that people put into the robot was amazing. It was great to
have the privilege to go and have such an experience. I would do it
again any day!
By Lillia Polmatier
Issue 6: July 12, 2019
PAGE 7