[Jon Stratis]

Invariably the team members we nominate for Dean's List each year had outstanding rookie years - and recognizing that is part of each nomination! Some excerpts from those nominations below:

Originally Posted by Finalist, Lake Superior Regional 2013

When she was a rookie, she helped to design, test, and build two homemade optical encoders that were then utilized on the competition robot. As we approached the end of the build season, she worked harder than anyone else to get the robot wired up once the mechanical team was finished with construction.

The night after kickoff of her rookie year, Kate as a very pointed question - why isn't Best Buy sponsoring FIRST? She pursued this over the course of the season, working with mentors to write two requests for sponsorship applications. The first was for our team, while the second was for FIRST in general. Over the course of the next few months, she pursued these requests, eventually presenting directly to Best Buy's CTO and the founder of the Geek Squad. When she was done, he simply replied "I get it". The team received substantial funding from Best Buy, and FIRST was able to direct additional funding from Best Buy to three other teams in need. Best Buy also launched a program this summer called "Tech Teen Summit", and as a result of our established relationship, The Robettes were invited to participate and lead a hands-on robotics project.

Unlike many other upcoming students, her rookie year we didn't talk about how great a leader she would be in the future - we talked about how great a leader she already was.

Originally Posted by Winner, Champs 2014

Since she joined the team, her passion inspired her parents to join as mentors and encouraged her 7th grade sister to join as well.

As a rookie, she developed more design concepts than any other students, and even built a prototype at home.

She has been a leader on the team every year, and was the first student to fill a new “junior captain” position.

Originally Posted by Finalist Lake Superior Regional 2015

Unlike most of our students, she took on extra responsibilities as a rookie, proving that a student doesn’t need experience on the team to have a huge impact.

As a rookie, Claire had an impact on several parts of the team. She learned how to program the robot, and was involved with every part of the robot code for the year, from autonomous to complex camera code. At competition, she spent additional time helping other teams with their programming, proving her ability to help them solve problems and get their robot working properly. She spent extra time and effort throughout the season working with our chairman’s team as the only rookie member with the subteam, where her innate understanding of business and marketing helped create an outstanding presentation. Her poise and enthusiasm led her to be one of the team’s presenters at competition.

Originally Posted by This years nominee!

As a rookie, she quickly grasped complicated concepts and took the initiative to do what the team needed. She recruited her family to build field elements for the team each year, and has managed all of the planning and parts purchases for that effort outside of the scheduled team meetings. When the robot performance was below expectations her rookie year, she was an important part of the team that prepared a redesign between competitions, and implemented it when pits opened.