Chief Delphi - Texas Workforce Grant

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Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Thank you for posting this information

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Quote:

Originally Posted by FiTFoundation (Post 1304598)

Hi Texas FRC Teams:

The FIRST® in Texas Foundation is pleased to announce the FRC teams that have been selected to receive a Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) team grant for the 2014 season. We are proud to help fund seventeen (17) rookie and fifty-one (51) existing teams FRC teams to represent Texas among over 2,800 teams from around the world. Thank you for your participation in the FIRST® vision of “a world where science and technology are celebrated.” You are all science and technology heroes!

PLEASE NOTE that we have one (1) ROOKIE FRC grant remaining. If any ROOKIE teams have not yet applied for a grant from the FIRST® in Texas Foundation, please do so immediately! We would love to help an 18th FRC ROOKIE team get off the ground this season. Any team applying must first register with US FIRST® to get a team number. Because of the quick turnaround time until the December sixth registration deadline, we must now require a temporary or permanent team number to finalize a grant.

As the foundation transitions management this season, there are a few updates we’d like to provide you. The total grant award from TWC was $260,000 less this year than in years past. This season, FIRST® in Texas had more applicants than ever before, making this the first year that the foundation was not able to provide a grant award to every applicant. We experienced a very competitive selection process for 2013-14 grant season. Teams are selected for awards based on criteria given to FIRST® in Texas by the funding sponsors. Award criteria may change from year to year. We believe that all FIRST® participants are deserving of an award. Unfortunately due to an increased demand and decreased supply, we were not able to award grants to every applicant. Because of the overwhelming number of funding requests from teams like yours, we aim to significantly increase funds available for team grants next year.

ALL AWARDS CONTINGENT ON ELIGIBILITY

Grant selections are contingent on the verification of eligibility for TWC: all student team members must be enrolled in 9th-12th grades in the state of Texas.

The list below may change based on the receipt and verification of Eligibility Forms submitted by selected teams or if teams inform us of changes to their team or application status. We will announce changes or updates to this list as they occur. Please check out the list below, as well as the status updates below.

Questions about your application status?

IF YOUR TEAM:

RECEIVED YOUR SELECTION NOTIFICATION, BUT HAS NOT SUBMITTED YOUR ELIGIBILITY FORM:
Please submit the Eligibility Form as soon as possible! You have ten (10) business days to submit your Eligibility Form. If your team has already made your registration payment to US FIRST®, your team can be reimbursed for your payment up to the amount of your grant award.

Your team will not be able to participate in the 2014 FRC season if US FIRST® does not receive your registration payment on or before December 6th. If you have not already made your registration payment to US FIRST® and FIRST® in Texas has not verified your eligibility by December 5th, we will not be able to submit your grant award payment to US FIRST® in time for their December 6th registration fee payment deadline.

Please send your completed Eligibility Form to FIRSTinTexas@skillpointalliance.org.

SUBMITTED YOUR ELIGIBILITY FORM:
Please wait. Teams that have submitted verified Eligibility Forms by end of the day Wednesday 11/20 will receive Award Letters by Friday 11/22. Teams submitting verified Eligibility Forms before 8 AM Monday 11/25 will receive Award Letters by Monday 11/25. Teams submitting Eligibility Forms after that will receive a response within 48 hours.

RECEIVED YOUR AWARD LETTER:
Unless you have specifically declined assistance with registration costs in response to the Award Letter, all granted funds will be applied directly to your teams US FIRST® registration cost. If you have already paid your registration cost, please send us a receipt FIRSTinTexas@Skillpointalliance.org and we will reimburse your team.

RECEIVED YOUR REGRET LETTER:
FIRST® in Texas has sent out letters of regret to all teams that have not been selected for a Texas Workforce Commission grant, except for teams that have APPLIED on or after Friday 11/15. If your team number is not listed below and you have not received a letter of regret, please email FIRSTinTexas@skillpointalliance.org from an email address you would like to receive your notification and we will re-send it to you. All teams that have applied will be kept on file. Should a selected team be determined ineligible or decline their award, we will send a selection letter to a new team to ensure all grants are distributed. We do not expect to have a significant number of grants open in this manner.

HAS NOT RECEIVED EITHER A SELECTION NOTIFICATION OR REGRET LETTER:
Please contact us at FIRSTinTexas@skillpointalliance.org. Teams that have applied since Friday 11/15 have not received notification yet.

TEXAS FRC TEAMS SELECTED FOR TWC AWARDS LISTED FROM SMALLEST TO LARGEST TEAM NUMBER (Please note that we are still gathering team numbers from teams 1-3, so we have only 65 numbers listed here):

1. Irvin HS T-STEM Academy | El Paso ISD | El Paso
2. BelAir High School | Ysleta ISD | El Paso
3. Eastlake High School | Socorro ISD | El Paso
4. 118
5. 148
6. 231
7. 441
8. 457
9. 499
10. 624
11. 647
12. 653
13. 2158
14. 2582
15. 2587
16. 2833
17. 2950
18. 2965
19. 2969
20. 2982
21. 2985
22. 3005
23. 3029
24. 3035
25. 3037
26. 3305
27. 3320
28. 3366
29. 3545
30. 3700
31. 3728
32. 3997
33. 4063
34. 4084
35. 4219
36. 4298
37. 4332
38. 4335
39. 4570
40. 4589
41. 4597
42. 4610
43. 4639
44. 4670
45. 4689
46. 4694
47. 4717
48. 4734
49. 4747
50. 4798
51. 4799
52. 4852
53. 4853
54. 4934
55. 5047
56. 5052
57. 5070
58. 5103
59. 5212
60. 5261
61. 5287
62. 20140021
63. 20140165
64. 20140204
65. 20140537
66. 20140639
67. 20140697
68. 20140698

We haven't heard either way yet, but probably because we applied later since we were informed application deadline is December:

http://alamo-first.org/node/43

Can anyone discern a pattern of criteria among the veteran teams' awards? I cannot...

--Michael Blake

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

I am not sure what criteria was used to select teams. I can tell you that I submitted our application on Oct. 10th and there is not another FRC team in a 150 mile radius around us.

I hope that helps,

Mr. B

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

My guess it was based on the demographics numbers which were mostly these questions below. I will say that we don't have and weren't able to obtain some of the information for our students so that might have been part of the reason we didn't get the grant.

Quote:

16. What type of organization is your team affiliated with?
school
non-school organization (e.g. Girl Scouts, 4H)
homeschool organization
17. How many team members have a disability?
0
18. How many team members are enrolled in a school that is located on a military base?
0
19. How many team members have a parent or sibling who are actively serving with, or are a veteran of, the US military?
0
20. How many team members live in a home where someone qualifies for free or reduced price lunch?
0
21. How many of your team members reside in households where someone qualifies for WIC or SNAP (formerly "food stamps")?
0
22. How many team members are home-schooled?
0
23. How many team members are female?
13
24. Please select the number of team members that are best described as an individual of the following racial/ethnic categories.
African-American, Non-Hispanic - 4
Asian/Asian-American - 8
White, Non-Hispanic - 27
Hispanic/Latino - 6
Native American/Alaskan Native - 0

Our team demographics have shifted much further to a 50/50 girl to boy ratio. We submitted this before the club fair for St. Agnes Academy our all girls school, and some of the boys have stopped coming since it was right at the beginning when we get our rush of members each year who are just deciding if they want to join or not.

Anyone else want to post their answers, so we can reverse engineer their criteria?

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Here is our team demographic information.

Number of Students on Team 70
Number of Female Students on Team 24
Number of Male Students on Team 46
Number of High School Freshmen on Team 9
Number of High School Sophomores on Team 25
Number of High School Juniors on Team 20
Number of High School Seniors on Team 16
Percent of African-American/Black Students on Team 1.00%
Percent of Asian Students on Team 4.00%
Percent of Caucasian/White Students on Team 94.00%
Percent of Native American/Alaskan Students 0.00%
Percent of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Students 1.00%
Percent of Other Race Students on Team 0.00%
Percent of Hispanic Students on Team 84.00%

100 %. Title I students
25 on free/reduced lunch
3 with disabilities

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

I want to caution all the teams who did not get the grant about publicly complaining, that will not improve your standing with FIRST in Texas or Skillpoint.

If you have a private concern, I encourage you to talk about it with other Mentors.

The DiscoBots (2587) are ready to help other Texas teams raise money or find mentors! Please let us know if you need help!

http://2013.discobots.org/node/23

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

I'm not sure if anyone has publicly complained about Skillpoint. I do know that there were multiple teams that were turned down that are entitled to have an opinion. I don't agree with the decision, and I'm sure there are others as well. How they choose to handle it is up to them. Teams that relied on that money to supplement fund raising will have to find other sources. I hope this doesn't start a wave of teams that fold.

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Frishman (Post 1305758)

Teams that relied on that money to supplement fund raising will have to find other sources. I hope this doesn't start a wave of teams that fold.

Well isn't that what FIRST is about; facing challenges and overcoming them. Teams just can't rely on grants for funding. We learned that after our first year. Grants are nice financial additions but are never a certain thing.

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Team 2950 was a lucky school to receive this grant. We did receive this grant in the past years, so here is what we put. Hope we can reverse engineer this! :D

Quote:

1) Team Name: Devastators 2950
2) Is this a NEW or EXISTING team? Existing
4) Information about the team members' schools and any supporting organizations including:
a) ISD ( affiliation: Harmony Science academy- Waco
b) Is student attending a Title 1 school?: Yes
c) Is student attending a school on a military base?: NO
5) Team member demographics, including:
a) # of team members: 31
b) # of team members with disabilities: 1
c) # of team members living in a home where a household member is eligible for free/reduced-price lunch:
d) # of team members attending homeschool: 0
e) # of team members attending school on a military base: 0
f) # of team members who are female: 12
g) # of team member in each racial/ethnicity group: 15 Hispanic/latino
1 Asian
3 Black
9 White/ non hispanic

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

ADD 3481 to the list!

We got notification this past Friday 6th.

We're surprised and pleased with a substantial grant. THANKS Texas Workforce Commission _and_ SkillPoint Alliance!!

--Michael Blake

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

I forgot to update this as well. Spectrum did receive a grant in the second selections as well.

Thank You Texas Workforce Commission for your continued support of robotics programs in our state.

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV (Post 1310283)

I forgot to update this as well. Spectrum did receive a grant in the second selections as well.

Thank You Texas Workforce Commission for your continued support of robotics programs in our state.

GREAT to hear this Allen!

Maybe our _winning_ personalities convinced them... lol ;-)

--Michael

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Hi Texas FRC Teams,

Below is the updated list of teams that have been selected to receive grants from the FIRST® in Texas Foundation.

1. 57
2. 118
3. 148
4. 231
5. 441
6. 457
7. 499
8. 624
9. 647
10. 653
11. 2158
12. 2582
13. 2587
14. 2789
15. 2833
16. 2950
17. 2965
18. 2969
19. 2982
20. 2985
21. 3005
22. 3029
23. 3035
24. 3037
25. 3043
26. 3305
27. 3320
28. 3355
29. 3366
30. 3481
31. 3545
32. 3679
33. 3700
34. 3728
35. 3847
36. 3997
37. 4063
38. 4192
39. 4219
40. 4298
41. 4332
42. 4335
43. 4364
44. 4570
45. 4587
46. 4589
47. 4597
48. 4610
49. 4639
50. 4641
51. 4670
52. 4689
53. 4694
54. 4696
55. 4717
56. 4734
57. 4747
58. 4798
59. 4799
60. 4852
61. 4853
62. 4981
63. 5047
64. 5052
65. 5057
66. 5070
67. 5103
68. 5212
69. 5241
70. 5242
71. 5261
72. 5272
73. 5287
74. 5342
75. 5320

Re: Texas Workforce Grant

Congrats to alll the teams who received the grant.

Better luck next year for us.