Congrats to Fl Regional WFFA recipient Mr. James Payne

[nehalita]

Hi, I'm from team 1345. Our mentor, Mr. James Payne, won the Florida Regional WFA. First, I need to say thank you to several people who made this possible.

Thanks to Arefin Bari for being insistent on this submission. You reminded me almost every day and truly made me realize what Mr. Payne does behind the scene. As a student, we only see how we are effected by our mentors but do not always realize how our mentors are effected by us. You inspired me to write it and I wouldn't have finished it without your encouragement.

Thanks to Amanda Morrison for helping me edit the content on the essay and for her positive feedback. It may not seem like much to you, Amanda, but you have always been there whenever I needed any help with my writings. You helped me with Chairman's last year and with my essays for college. For anyone out there reading this, this woman is a miracle writer! We can all learn from her.

Thanks Andy Baker and the past WFA recipients for posting in Andy Baker's thread. By seeing people as appreciated as you tell us how easy it is to write it and how much it means to you... I realized how necessary it was to write one up myself. Your positive words definitely made a significant difference (I'm taking Statistics; I'm sure there can be some statistics I can find to show that the difference was significant indeed!).

Finally, thanks to the past WFA writers. I read a lot of your essays and realized that the 600 word limit wasn't so bad to fill up... actually it was harder to keep it to 600 words. You guys made me realize how important it is to recognize those who deserve it. Your entries are amazing and your mentors are even more amazing. Keep it up.

And of course, CONGRATULATIONS to Mr. James Payne!

My essay (submitted in the post it of the thread by Mr. Rich Kressly with the other WFFA entires) was about how Mr. Payne affected the team as a whole but it does not amount to how he affected me personally.

Mr. Payne is currenlty my engineering teacher and he was also my teacher as a freshman. I have seen him for more hours than I have probably seen all of my friends combined. I have even eaten lunch with him for approximately 3 years. This man was the reason I even began to like engineering and desire to make a name for myself. He made me realize that I had talent and potential and that it was only right to tap into it. I know that if I ever need anything, he will help me.

When I was a freshman in his two engineering classes, I barely knew him but he seemed to already know me and know that I would do well. He would encourage me to participate in all the competitions we take part in: the cardboard and plywood regatta; the SECME brain bowl, water rockets, mousetrap car, bridge, and essay contest; JETS/TEAMS competitions; BEST competition with the notebook, presentation, and display; and finally with FIRST by pushing me to program the robot, pulling me in to teach me how the electrical and mechanical aspects of the robots and help fabricate the robot itself, and giving me the daunting but intensely exciting task of scouting. This man has fought for me YEAR ROUND, not just for 6 weeks!

No one will understand how much he puts into our team until we spend a whole day with him. He puts his grading on hold and will take the time out to pick up some students and drop them home whenever necessary without uttering a SINGLE complaint! He is still a wonderful father to his family and an excellent teacher at school (even after we wear him out for those 3 hours of robotics every day).

On the ride home from the competition, instead of sitting back and listening to music, we had an excellent conversation. There were three of us awake in his car and we talked about everything from society to what we wanted to do next and how. See, he could easily pack up and tell us "see you in january" but instead, we are starting on a new project: Project Pimp My Golf Cart because he auctioned to get a golf cart for our engineering magnet and he's going to take it apart and let us learn about it and how to improve it and put it back together. Eventually, we want to remote control it.

Finally, I would like to congratulate and thank him for the way he runs our team. If you ever visited our pits at Florida Regional, you would probably notice that he hardly ever had his hands on the robot. He taught us from the start how to put the robot together and how to problem solve on our own. He will tell us what to do and show us whenever possible but IF we COULD work on the robot, we did. He never prevented us from doing this and we know so much because of it. You just have to see the look he gets on his face when he gets materials to work with -- he looks like a two year old with a huge grin on his face.

On top of that, the only reason I am still at Stranahan High School is because of his hard work. Stranahan would be nothing without Mr. Payne and Mr. Platt (affectionately called the Playnes).

I am so glad we was recognized for what he did. Thanks Mr. Payne and congratulations =).

[nehalita]

Also, some funny stories:

The submission of the award
So I finish the essay at 8:00pm on February 23rd and sit back to relax. I sent it to Arefin and had him look it over.

At 11:30pm, I calmly come online and ask him if he submitted the award.
Arefin: "Wait I thought you submitted the award..."
Me: "What? I thought you did."
--uh oh---

So I rush onto cd and usfirst.org and try to figure out how to submit the award.
I go onto the firstawards website and think, oh... that's simple, I just have to make an account. That's easy!... WRONG.

Turns out, our other mentor, Mr. David Platt, had already made an account for the website. So we have NO Idea what the password is and by this time, it's around 11:45pm. I call him several times but he does not pick up. Note that the only people that knew I was writing one were Arefin Bari, Amanda Morrison, and me. So I give up but Arefin starts plugging in every password that comes into his head while I panic and crumble inside. He tells me around 11:55pm that the password was our school's name.

So I'm rushing on and had NO idea that I had to write in some extra information (normally I wouldn't have minded but I was in a bit of a rush with 4 minutes left). So I go in and realize that the pictures we were allowed to use we supposed to be attached separately. I thought they were supposed to be in the essay so I took out the pictures and resaved it and reattached it.

It's now 11:58pm and I am attaching my pictures and realize that my pictures are too large. I have to open them up in MS Paint, resave them to a smaller size and reattach them. I get two attached and realize... i have around 10 seconds left...at most

I give up attaching and press the "finalize" button. And I get:
YOUR TIME HAS RUN OUT. Or something like that.

...So I assumed it wasn't submitted. I was horrified and quite disappointed. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night.

So, when Tytus Gerrish runs into our pits on Friday while I was talking to a judge and filling out a survey and tells us we got the WFA... I was dumbfounded. I told him "we didn't even turn one in." So we run to the field and Mr. Payne goes to accept the award.

Mind you, Mr. Payne didn't know what the WFA was. He read about it but didn't realize how esteemed the award was and at that time, he didn't remember what it was. So he's accepting this award without hearing the introduction about the award or hearing the judge's wonderful introduction to our essay.

We recounted this story over dinner and explained to him everything that happened. He got a good laugh out of that one =).

[Bharat Nain]

Congrats Mr. Payne. I have heard a lot of good things about you - keep it up!

[dubious elise]

Neha, your stories just made my day

Congratulations Mr. Payne - if Neha is any indication of what is to come in the engineering world, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done!

[Arefin Bari]

I don't have any words that would describe this man's effort he puts in for team 1345. I have known him for about 3, 4 years and the first time I met him, it was at a SECME (science and engineering club) competition. Since then I knew he was a man who would do anything to help the students. I was on team 108 for 4 years, after graduation I wanted to go to a team who needs most help, hence I had to pick 1345 since they didn't have any mechanical people on their team, any industrial tools, or any engineers. It was all Mr. Payne and Mr. Platt who kept this team together. The team was falling apart and I wanted to join the team to see if I can help them out. With obvious proofs, team 1345 has grown a lot and all of them work together as a great team.

Here are few stories I would like to share...

Day after kickoff, Mr. Payne and I were talking about the game and what would our robot need to do at the regional. At the end of the conversation, I suggested that it would be nice to get 6 wheels (I also pointed out that I didn't want to use the kop wheels) by tuesday and get a chassis together and have it running around. Mr. Payne ordered the IFI wheels that Monday after kickoff, but he kept his words. Instead of going home and spending the time with his family, he went ahead to one of the wood shops and made me 6 wooden wheels with bearings pressed into it and brought it back to school. After that I went ahead and made changes, painted them, put treads around them and we had the chassis running around by tuesday.

Here is another one...

2 weeks before ship. The robot looked completely empty and instead of plywood or aluminum I wanted to put on some lexan there. Here is how our conversation went.

Mr. Payne: So you want to put lexan around the robot?
Arefin: Yes, I would love to. I am not sure if I want to use 1/8th cause it might get too heavy, I can always use 1/16th.
Mr. Payne: Ok Arefin.

... Next day he shows up to school with 3 (4' by 8') lexan and 3 (4' by 8') lexan piece so we can start making pieces for the robot. Not to mention that money came out of his own pocket that day.

I have never seen this mentor disappoint a student. Always took a student's idea to account before he went on with what he had to share with the team.

He truly deserves the WFA, and I was really glad to watch him go down there, shake every single judges hand and recieve that wonderful and prestigious award.

Mr. Payne, you have done a lot for me. I truly appreciate all your help. Team 1345 Platinum Dragons would like you to know that we love you.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Congratulations, Jim. Nehalita is obviously pretty impressed as are Bharat and Arefin. With those three pulling for you, you must be doing things right. Congratulations!