[andrew348]

Congrats to Wayne.

He has worked very hard in FIRST and I could think of no one else who deserved it more.

Here is the essay submitted for his WFA

“The fundamental responsibility of a mentor or leader is to inspire others to step up to the plate, take responsibility, and become new leaders.” This is the role of a mentor defined by Wayne Penn. He has lived his life by the quote, and has affected the lives of those around him dramatically.
Wayne Penn started his involvement in FIRST on Team 217, The Thunder Chickens, in the 2001 season as a junior in High School. In 2002, Wayne broke out of his shell and became Driver and CEO of his team.
When Wayne moved onto college at Columbia, he did not stop his involvement in FIRST. In New York, Wayne became involved in Team 395, 2Train Robotics. On 2Train, Wayne was the lead student mentor from his University. He was involved in mentoring efforts and strategy. He helped 2Train win five Regionals in four years and a Regional Chairman’s Award. Team 395 comes from an inner city neighborhood with very low high school graduation rates. Instead of working with the teams that have major sponsors, Wayne chose to help these students. Wayne has said that one of his favorite memories is when a student told him that when he entered high school, he did not expect to graduate. FIRST gave him a reason to stay motivated. He is now an engineering student in college.
One of Wayne’s greatest accomplishments in New York was his involvement in the Region 2 Robotics Initiative. He spearheaded the creation of several FLL team in a Bronx Neighborhood. They held bi-monthly workshops with student and teachers. The borough’s FLL teams grew to 45, the largest numbers for a neighborhood in New York City.
Wayne has been involved in FLL and FRC. He has worked with many FLL teams. He has brought one team to the World Festival three times. In addition, Wayne was awarded the National Invitational Adult Mentor of the Year Award in 2002. In FRC program, he has been involved in the NYC and Boston Regional Planning Committees. Wayne was awarded Chief Delphi’s Unsung FIRST Hero award. He has also emceed numerous competitions. All of this was outside of helping out numerous teams each year.
In the fall of 2006, Wayne entered graduate school at Boston University. Yet again, he still stayed involved. Our team had met Wayne many times before at the New York City Regional. When he told us in 2006 that he was planning on attending BU, we said that he would always be welcome on our team. A few months later, he called and said he would take us up on that offer.
Wayne has helped our team tremendously by providing our team with new aspects of engineering and outlook on the FIRST program. Wayne has been an unbelievable role model for the students of our team. He works well with the students and gets them motivated, no matter what the situation is.
Above all, Wayne thinks about himself last. Bharat Nain of Team 25 says, “The best trait about Wayne is his selfless dedication to FIRST. The last person he thinks of is himself, always making sure to serve his teams and others in need.” Wayne comes down almost every night from school or work and work tirelessly. Last year, we would be dropping Wayne off at the train at midnight. Then the next day, he would be there, working ever hard then the day before.
I remember when a rookie team asked if he was helping out our team for college credits. With out dropping a beat, he responded, “Nope, just for fun.”

I would like to Thank Team 217 and Team 25 (Wayne Cokeley, Alexa Scott, Shaun McNulty & Bharat Nain) for their support in this essay.

Good luck to Wayne at Championship and hope that he wins WFA for the year!