UFH: Ellery Wong

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Thread created automatically to discuss UFH Honoree: Ellery Wong.



Name: Ellery Wong
Date Honored: 03-31-2006
Years involved w/FIRST: 7
FIRST Team(s): Xerox Corporation &, Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School (0191)
Role: Engineer, Leadership
Quote: “Fear not your friends; for they can only lie to you; Fear not your enemies; for they can only kill you; Fear only the indifferent who allow the liars and killers to walk safely on earth.”
Bio: Ellery Wong is Team #191's do-it-all mentor from the Rochester, NY area. Described as 'living and breathing FIRST', Ellery has helped the X-Cats reach hew heights in his last 7 years as a mentor. Ellery described his complicated team role for us: "I have been involved since 1999 when I first started working at Xerox. I started on the team as one of the youngest mechanical sub-team mentor on the team and was later nominated to join the leadership team at the end of my first FIRST season. My responsibilities as one of the 6 X-CATS team leaders has included design direction, drives sub-team leader, facilities, team finances, fundraising, off-season seminars, and community involvement. Basically I have be called the “Go to guy” for a lot of reasons involving the program here in Rochester. I have extended my work to the Finger Lakes Regional team development and Rochester Ruckus planning committees as well. FIRST has been so ingrained in me since my initial year that I went ahead to start teams 1126 SparX and1450 X-Q Robotix and continue to link in 1425 Wilsonville Robotics to extend the XEROX FIRST Program."

Ellery also had a very touching FIRST memory to share with us. "My favorite FIRST memory was when I had a couple of my students ask me to be their big brother the very first year I was involved. Being the youngest in my family I had always wanted to have a younger brother or sister and this was a dream fulfilled. Ever since then I had always tried to keep in touch with as many students as possible to satisfy my role as a big brother, mentor and friend by keeping them eternally in my life."

When asked about his accomplishments in FIRST, Ellery gave us an impressive list. "In addition to 1126 and 1450 as mentioned earlier, I helped start about 8 rookie teams in 2005, was nominated for Woodie Flowers Award in 2005, and fulfilled my personal team goal of winning at least 1 robot competition since our team has never won a Regional prior to 2005 in the first 13 years of existence. I just had to break that “drought” to give the team the proper skills and a little boost in morale. Winning that at the inaugural Finger Lakes Regional that we hosted made it even sweeter."

Ellery also had a great description of FIRST to share: "FIRST is professional training, community service, a growing family, and an enriching life experience rolled up into one. It has the effect like an energy drink you can chug like a soda!"

Lastly, we asked Ellery to give some advice to his fellow FIRST peers. "My advice to FIRST-ers is to contribute to your hearts content while maintaining a balance in your life. Don’t burn yourself out so you can continue to contribute for generations to come and grow your legacy in your FIRST family tree. Like any program such as FIRST, participate with a passion and excitement so that all who you come in contact will gain and share the same."

Congratulations to Ellery Wong, our next Unsung FIRST Hero.

Nominated By: Koko Ed