what teams are going to help mentor

[Joe Ross]

Last year we mentored 3 teams. It is a lot of work, but the end result is a lot of fun.

The first team that we helped to start is the one that we had the best relationship with. They were for King Drew Magnet school (606). Our administrative leader spent a lot of time working with them before and during the season. Most of our students didn't get to meet their team until the week before shipping when they came to our building to play with the ramp. While we were waiting for everyone to show up, their students and our students got a basketball game going with a black ball and a makeshift hoop. That was the point at which I felt that we were no longer just the mentors, but friends.

They cheered for us throughout the finals at socal, which was really great as their team is about 3 times the size of ours. At nationals, we were in different divisions, but both teams found time to go cheer for each other.

They ended up winning the rookie all-star awards at the so-cal regional and at nationals, as well as the highest rookie seed in their division.

Another team that we mentored was from the MAST academy (410). They were a second year team, but weren't happy with their robot from the previous year. They wanted more engineering help. One of our engineers spent most of his time with that team, finding them sponsors and giving advice. While we never bonded with them as much as King Drew we still had great fun watching them. They won the Delphi "Driving technology today" award at the socal regional for their limbo bot that was modeled after a low-rider. I thought they should have won the photoegenic award, for their blue fiberglass frame, but then I'm not a judge.

The last team that we mentored was CAMS academy (697 i think) One of our former students transfered schools to this one and his mom started a team there. They started late, and I'm not really sure what our role was in mentoring them.

Since our robot didn't perform as well as we would have liked, my favorite moment was seeing 606 win the Rookie all star award at nationals.

I beleive that we are planning on mentoring again.