#IRL: 4 Droid Design Tips from Star Wars Galactic Builders
November 15, 2019
The vision of FIRST® is brought to life by a global community of passionate supporters, including volunteers, corporate sponsors, teachers, parents, community leaders, and the student participants themselves. Through collaboration, organizing events, providing resources, funding, and mentorship, communities work together to expand access. This allows more young people to participate in FIRST programs, empowering them to understand that they can use their collective skills to make a positive impact in one person’s life, in their community, and even the world. This can be seen in action at Lincoln High School, a Title One school. Here, a community rallied together to not only form a FIRST® Robotics Competition team, but give them the resources, guidance, and support to be successful and celebrated.
To learn more about the impact this support has had, we recently caught up with team mentors, FIRST alumni, educators, team members, parents, and local partners who have helped make it all possible.
Jeremiah Jeffries, Lead Coach of “Steel Stingers”: As the engineering teacher here at Lincoln High School, my biggest challenge is getting real-world, hands-on experiences for my kids. And what I love about FIRST is we actually get hands on from the engineering design process, starting with the problem to our concepts to prototyping, to testing, to our final presentation that we get to perform at a tournament.”
Team working together to test robot design and functionality in a mock field
Melissa Audelo, Lincoln High School Principal: “If anyone ever believes that one teacher cannot make a difference, I would direct you to meet Jeremiah Jeffries.”
Lead Coach and Lincoln High School Teacher Jeremiah Jeffries leads robot demonstration outside school
Dave Berggren, Senior Regional Director, FIRST California: “Students trained in FIRST are not only future engineers, coders, and scientists but also future leaders, policymakers, and changemakers who will drive social, environmental, and economic progress in their communities. Through FIRST, we’re cultivating a culture of innovation, empathy, and resilience that will empower communities for generations to come.”
The Steel Stingers pose with awards after winning the FIRST Robotics Competition 2024 Hueneme Port Regional Rookie All Star Award”
Lizbeth, team member: “I really want to encourage others to unlock their potential that they might not know they have. You do that by reaching out and trying new things, because you never know if you like it or not until you try it.”
Lizbeth and teammates problem-solve at the 2024 FIRST Championship before their next match.
Eli Uva, mentor of FIRST Robotics Competition team 3255, “The SuperNURDS”: “I have seen the immense impact and experience FIRST Robotics Competition provides to its students and have seen many alumni achieve great success in their college careers within clubs, and projects supporting our local team and growing a community driven engineers with technical knowledge, but more importantly, the ability to be part of a team, and make engineering decisions under a tight deadline, and limited resources.”
Left: members of “Steel Stingers” and team 3255 “SuperNURDS” finish a practice session with SuperNURDS’ robot.
Right: Members of “Steel Stingers” and “team 2485 “Overclocked” collaborating in 2485’s machine shop. The “Steel Stingers” reached out to several San Diego teams for support and collaboration, including the 3128 :Aluminum Narwhals,” 2485 Overclocked, and 4738 “Patribots.”
Kevin, FIRST alumni, now team mentor: “The ‘Patribots’ team played a big role in actually setting the foundation and teaching me how to code, and how FIRST Robotics Competition is structured. ‘Overclocked’ and ‘Aluminum Narwhals’ teams also played a big role. They were all our go-to-teams for support whenever we had any sorts of issues.
Principal: “We're really proud at Lincoln High School of our football team. We have a long legacy of football, and I will never forget the day that Mr. Jeffries and the young men said, ‘Melissa, one day people are going to talk about football and robotics in the same breath at Lincoln.’ I didn't think one day was going to be a year and a half later.”
The Steel Stingers were celebrated and awarded at a school-wide pep rally before heading off to the 2024 FIRST Championship in Houston
Wall of the “Steel Stingers” championship pit filled with supportive messages from Lincoln High School students and proclamation from San Diego community.
Jeremiah Jeffries: “To see the community come together is huge for us. To know that we're not alone here, that we're trying to get our kids those experiences, to get them out and get them real world jobs. I think the community sees that, and they want to support that because we're doing something awesome here.”
Inspired by their curiosity and potential, educators, parents, local and large organizations, fellow teams and mentors came together to help the “Steel Stingers” team get started. Now inspired by their talent and tenacity, the support and celebration by the community grows and student participation expands, empowering the entire community to build better futures.
What will the “Steel Stingers” do this season in FIRST AGE™ presented by Qualcomm Incorporated? Follow FIRST and the Steel Stingers on Instagram to catch all the action this season. We can’t wait to see what they do next!