'New 4-H team will compete in robotics' Article

[Hallry]

I was looking through Google News and again stumbled upon a FIRST-article, this time about 10 new University of Illinois Extension 4-H FRC teams being created through a partnership with FIRST and sponsorship from JCPenney. It was published on the WJBC radio station webpage, which is broadcasted in central Illinois.

Quick Summary:

Through a partnership with FIRST and with funding from JCPenney, the University of Illinois Extension is starting 10 new 4-H teams that will be competing and participating in that competition this spring.

Those teams will be promoted locally through Extension offices, a website and Facebook page. They are located all over the state, from Alton to Rockford, and everywhere in between.

“Four-H FRC teams create an opportunity for a very high level experience in science, engineering and technology, but of equal importance and benefit is what they create as an opportunity for positive youth development, and all of those things that 4-H has been doing for a long time, and that is positioning youth as leaders where they are really driving their own learning based on their interests and excelling towards the highest level of mastery and independence of being a part of something bigger where they are belonging to a group and feeling a connectedness to a larger community,” said Diaz.

All kids who participate in an FRC team or a FIRST event also have access to college scholarships that have been created by a variety of donors. This year alone, between the two high school competitions, there is almost$15 million in college scholarships that is only available to students who participate in the events.

“It really does open all kinds of doors for kids’ futures,” said Diaz.

You can read it for yourself here. Good luck to those new teams, and congrats to FIRST for the press!

[Akash Rastogi]

My friend Sravan Suryadevara (1403 alum) (now team 4096) and his peers at Illinois have been the ones doing a lot of work for advancing FIRST and STEM in the area. They have started multiple FRC teams this year as well as grown strong FLL and FTC clubs while working with other veteran mentors in Illinois.

Illinois isn't the only school using 4H to start teams. Our team (3929) worked with Penn State Extension to develop ways for Penn State to get involved with FIRST through 4H and now we too have several rookies this year under their 4H extension. Right now looks like 9 of PA's new rookies are 4-H.

http://www.atomicrobotics.com/about/partners/
http://extension.psu.edu/4-h/explore

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I believe several of those teams will also be attending Midwest Regional.

[Akash Rastogi]

UIUC also has a facebook group up if you want to learn more https://www.facebook.com/illinoisro

[ebarker]

Four of the eighteen rookie teams in Georgia are 4H,

Go 4H.

[DavidGitz]

We just met with the Alton team last night and gave them a demo and a lot of team-developed material to help them get up to speed quickly. We are working with 4 rookie FRC teams in the Southern Illinois area this year, it's a great expansion in this part of the state and we are looking forward to the 14 Rookie teams coming to the St. Louis Regional.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

David,
Are the teams you are helping all going to St. Louis Regional? If you need anything, let me know. I will give you my email off line.
Al

[DavidGitz]

Al - I just checked the STL regional and we have 5 rookie teams from Illinois coming: Alton, Mt. Vernon, Quincy, Troy and Springfield. If memory serves the Quincy team used to be around but went defunct a few years back, and now they are starting up again with new mentors/new students. We are supporting the Alton, Mt. Vernon and Troy teams more directly as they are more local for us and we have offered our help to Quincy and Springfield as well. For the St. Louis area a lof of the teams have been working in coordination with the RD to develop training camps, resources, anything we can do to help out new and existing teams. At the STL Regional I believe we are expecting 14 rookie teams so it is going to be a very exciting year!

Thanks for you offer of support. I will definitely let you know of anything that comes up.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

OK,
Since St. Louis and Midwest are the same weekend, it sounds like we are both going to be busy. At last count I think we have 13-14 rookies as well.
Al

[popnbrown]

Haha Akash, thanks for all the PR, for the UIUC group and our new team. I've really been lacking being active on CD, it's been quite a few years since I was last very active.

It's pretty exciting how hard Lisa Diaz has been working with JCPenney and FIRST to get all these teams jump started in Illinois. We were looking to start a team anyways, and having the 4-H State office, here helped. I believe that Lisa is still trying to garner interest for a few teams in different areas.

I don't know if it's too late, but if there are some veteran teams in Illinois that might be willing to do a demo or two PM me, we can see what can happen.

The list of current ROOKIE team locations is:
Forsyth
Champaign
Springfield
Alton
Bloomington
Galesburg
Joliet

[pfreivald]

3951 is a new rookie team (featured in Libby's Let's Talk FIRST!) that is also 4H and JCP. It's awesome to see such an outpouring of institutional support from 4H on top of the spectacular JCP sponsorship!