[Barry Bonzack]

Originally Posted by wendymom

Dean's List Winners from South Florida


Katie Austin - 1902 & Jessie Poen - 1557!!!

We are so proud of Katie. She is an amazing student, and a joy to have worked with for 6 years. Here is her nominating essay:


Jan 2006 during the first few days of Exploding Bacons Rookies season several mentors were showing prototypes of their manipulators. After the students had left, Katie Austin, one of the students little sisters, tugged on the shirt of a 6ft 6 man she didn't know and told him that his design wouldn't work. He stared at it, then stared at her, then back at it and asked her mom how old she was. “11” her mother replied. “Is she in middle school yet?” he asked. The answer was yes, 6th grade. “Then she is on the team” declared the mentor. “Are you sure?” replied the mom. “Yes,” said the mentor, “she’s right, it won't work. She doesn't know the correct terms to use, but she’s right.” Thus began Katies career with Exploding Bacon and our teams tradition of allowing younger siblings to join giving us our family friendly atmosphere. 6 years later, Katie is now in her second term as the president of Exploding Bacon, and the face of the team.

When Katie began 7th grade, she started an FLL team at her school, the “Bacon Bits.” Katie was a leader on her school’s team for 2 years, heading the team’s Research Award effort, and won a 2nd place trophy at the state championship. She has continued her FLL involvement by mentoring teams and volunteering at competitions.

While on her FLL team, she continued being a full member of 1902. In 8th grade she became a member of our outreach team doing community demos as well as corporate presentations. She has presented in front of representatives of companies such as Lockheed Martin, Electronic Arts, JC Penny, Fluid Power Society, PTC, and BAE Systems. These presentations have lead to donations to the team of over $95,000! In fact, in her 8th grade year Bacon was the first FRC team that reached out to Electronic Arts. Katie and the other team members impressed the company so greatly, they asked us to help coordinate their donation of $5000.00 to 9 teams in the area.

Katie has also been a student ambassador for the North Carolina Regional and at the Orlando Regional for 3 years. She has toured the Mayor of Ocoee and an NC State senator. She has also been a student ambassador at the World Championships in 2010. Last year she volunteered at Champs doing field reset and had the honor of working the Einstien Field.

The epoch of Katie’s outreach efforts was the Learning 2011 event at Walt Disney World. Katie received the opportunity to explain the Ideals of FIRST to Bill Clinton as well as executive business leaders. Dean Kamen invited 2 FRC, 2 FTC, and 2 FLL students to represent FIRST at this event, brining all 6 up on stage during his speech. Later, Dean sat with these students, and asked for their suggestions. “How can we get more people interested in FIRST?” Dean inquired. The group had a brainstorming session, and finally Katie said “ThinkGeek.com is a highly popular website in the engineering community. They once tweeted about Exploding Bacon, and our website instantly had so much traffic that the sever crashed.” Dean, impressed with Katie’s creativity, asked his assistant to note that FIRST needs to get in touch with ThinkGeek.com.

Katie has participated in over 200 outreach events in the last 7 years. This year she led the team’s Exploding Science Outreach Project. Four 1.5 hour modules of hands on experiments in Chemistry, Physics, Simple Machines and Wind Power. Bacon visits afterschool programs and can teach up to 30 3rd through 5th graders per time. This leadership gives her the exceptional ability to be one of the Chairman’s Award presenters for three straight years.

While she forgoes the ability to drive the robot in preference of being a Chairman’s presenter, she is still a high achieving member of the mechanical design team. She is currently enrolled in advanced classes at Winter Park High School while dual enrolling at Valencia College. Katie aspires to follow her grandfather’s footsteps, and become an aerospace engineer. She has applied to UF and UCF but her top choice is Embry Riddle Aeronautics University, and is feverishly filling out scholarships to be able to afford the $40,000 per year tuition. She is still applying to other institutions, and her final decision will rest upon which opportunity will have the greatest impact on her life and her goal to someday work in the space program.

She has been a force on Exploding Bacon from the very first regional when a judge visiting the pit commented on her being such a cute little thing. The student replied “Hello, my name is Katie, I’m 12. What would you like to know about my robot?” To the judge’s amazement, this young girl proceeded to explain technical aspects, and answer complicated questions.

After graduation, Katie’s involvement in FIRST will not cease. As a college student she plans to continue mentor a local team. Ultimately, she aspires to be a leader in the engineering field, Katie will someday be the prototype that future FIRST students will try to emulate.