UFH: Travis Covington

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Thread created automatically to discuss UFH Honoree: Travis Covington.



Name: Travis Covington
Date Honored: 03-31-2005
Years involved w/FIRST: 8
FIRST Team(s): NASA &, West Covina High School (0968), Monster Cable/Retrevo &, Monta Vista High School (0115)
Role: Mentor
Quote: A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. - Douglas Adams
Bio: Travis Covington has a long history in FIRST. This being his 8th year in the program, he was a former student on Team #115, and now serves as a mentor for Team #968. Travis is well-known in west coast FIRST robotics, and his reputation is unmatched.

Travis is very humble about the awards he has received while in the FIRST program. "I cannot really say I accomplished much of anything myself, however, with the help of the students, fellow mentors, and teachers our team has accomplished many great things. Awards and recognition are nice, and I can always say I am proud of our rookie performance, and our regional win and finalist awards etc. In reality, at the end of the day I am most proud of the doing something worthwhile, something that benefits more than me. Overall, I think the greatest thing I accomplished while in FIRST was simply doing the same thing that the mentors at my High School did for me and our team."

Travis also has a pretty inspiring view of FIRST, and the memories he has of years past. "There are lots of memories both good and bad that always come to mind. All of the good ones involve people, and all of the bad ones include a robot in some way or another. It makes me realize just how trivial the robot is in FIRST, when the good memories don’t always occur when the robot succeeds. FIRST really is not as much about the robots as it is about the people you meet, the things you learn, and the experiences you gain along the way." Travis also said, "My most memorable moments have to be those where I could truly see an impact being made on myself, fellow students, or the students I mentored. No specific memory strikes me as being a favorite, but more and more recently I remember past events and build seasons and recall that some of the best, most enjoyable times I had were during the build season at the robotics lab with the other students and mentors doing nothing extraordinary or memorable, but just having fun."

Travis also had some fun advice for all FIRSTers. "List the reasons why you personally are on a FIRST team, if the list doesn’t include “because it is fun”, add it! None of us should be doing this if we are not having fun. If a day goes by where you weren’t laughing or having a good time at some point during day, take a look at the reasons why and try and change them. We all know how stressful things can get, but we cannot take it too seriously and must always strive to enjoy the ride."

Thanks and congratulations to Travis Covington, our next Unsung FIRST Hero.

Nominated By: Bill Gold