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Unread 12-03-2005, 19:46
Drake Drake is offline
www.sjharobotics.org
AKA: Ricardo
FRC #0581 (The Bulldogs)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Rookie Year: 2002
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 17
Drake is an unknown quantity at this point
Re: What does your school do for FIRST?

Wow, some schools really have it bad.

The first year our school participated, several other high schools(about 5, it was before I started High School) in our district were completely funded for the competition. That was the first year the schools in our district had vending machines, so all of the high schools in our school district were funded, at the very least to one regional and a couple thousand dollars for funding.

Our school district is the area around the Silicon Valley Regional. Every year since, we started in the 2000-2001 school year. Three years later, as our district was phased with budget problems we received less and less, until we received no funding in 2003. We have had Compaq, San Jose State University, and United Defense as our sponsors. Only United Defense has stuck with us. But, a couple of parents provide funding for food, and our mentor digs into his pocket for drinks and food as well. Years before students would provide their own food and drink, but our main mentor got really organized better this year, and we have lots of things to thank for that now

We have two mentors that help us from school. Our main mentor is the technology, and computer science teacher. He has a huge room, with lots of tools and spends so much time with us during build time that he almost becomes estranged from his wife and family. He does most of our fund raising. He is always looking to get support from the school and the district(He is heavily involved in the Teachers union for our school district). Our other mentor from school is our Physics teacher who invest as much time as he can. Although they enjoy helping us, they would both be happy with a stipend for helping us, or at the very least get more attention at school.

Our other mentor this year is an engineer that works for United Defense. He's a great guy that has really helped us out this year. He's really thought us a lot of things, and I can actually say, truthfully, that I learned many new facts and skills this year.

Our original principal a few years ago would acknowledge us, and would encourage people to show up. A few would, and thats what counted, especially considering it was a ten member team up until last year. However, our district has an unfortunate policy that does not allow a principal to remain at the same school for more than 5 years I believe, and he had 8 at ours. So our new principal last year didn't really acknowledge us until she showed up for an hour at the regional. She was appalled that we did not have universal team shirts for everyone, so she really looked around for funding and got us money for shirts, and safety glasses, for everyone on our team from construction company that is putting in new windows throughout the school. She's letting us borrow the school mascot suit as well this year, so watch out for a bulldog at the Silicon Valley regional this year.

I know the district has even tried putting together a FIRST LEGO robotics team at most of the middle schools in our district, but only one actually participates.

We really don't have problems with transportation since the city bus goes from our school to San Jose State University, where the regional is held.
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2006 Silicon Valley Regional Winners (Thanks to 254 and 766 for being wonderful alliance partners)
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