[cglrcng]

Are we missing the HUGE part of the story here of "Girls can also build kick ### Robots!" The journalist re-writing his story of "The Carl Hayden High School Robotics History" concerning former & current female team members in Robotics (if only a minor part of their particular entire CHHS history), and he the author, will certainly use his own words in writing said story...He chose to show, that given the chance, young ladies of High School age, can and will "if invited to participate," or / and "even if pushed outside" of their normal comfort zones initially, will sometimes, can & do often, go on to an area of career path & further education, that personally may not have normally interested them initially. But, do to the path taken or directed to, may just become interested in STEM & Further Education and going on to related careers like Engineering, and the like.

We can easily judge later how that all came about....It just shows only "one GREAT JOB DONE & very successful path taken by mentors and students alike"...Please don't armchair judge the nuances of the particular path later (or part out the words a non-directly involved author uses to relate the story)....It was an idea that worked. Enjoy the successful idea, implement what worked for them, that you think will work for your team, dump the rest...Enjoy the mission they took on and completed, and the path taken..."Getting Girls Also Involved in the Building of Robots!...And many of them going on to careers in STEM RELATED INDUSTRY & EDUCATIONS!"

The article wasn't aimed at diminishing the male robotics team members....It celebrated the involvement of the female team members, and some amazingly GREAT RESULTS to those involved females, to STEM, and our society as a whole.

Our team is a mixed community team, and when I see a new female team member (sometimes even some of the male members), that I didn't quite expect to get involved (from short pre-season observations only), in actually fabricating hard parts, and building the new robot(s), who is right after kickoff, running a lathe or a mill, or wiring up an electronics board, or the like.

I just smile and think...There may be, a future engineer or inventor, in just a few short years. (Out of the normal comfort zone is exactly where we should be pushing each student, male or female, at least once.....They just may discover something deep within themselves, that they never even knew existed).