STEM Opportunities by Brooke

STEM Opportunities by Brooke - January 2024 Scholarship Essay

One year ago, I decided on a whim to take a Google survey about starting a county robotics team, unaware of the immense impact it would have on my life. This survey led to me becoming a founding member and captain of Citrus County's first-ever high school FIRST Robotics team - the Olympians Team 9300.

Suddenly, I began dedicating 20+ hours per week to robot design, fundraising, organizing and conducting community outreach, presentations, and being involved in all aspects of building a team from the ground up. We were preparing for a competition against veteran teams who had been honing their skills for years, while we only had a few months. All this was with a team of members who had come from every single public high school in the district and had never met nor worked with one another before and like myself were no exports in the world of robotics or running and branding a team.

My prior experience with CAD proved invaluable. In a high school drafting elective, I learned Autodesk AutoCAD and Revit for architectural drafting, which introduced me to the world of mechanical drafting and engineering in Fusion360. This familiarity with CAD enabled me to thrive in creating tangible representations of our team's vision and rekindle a childhood passion for robotics that had faded as lack of opportunities in my rural community prevented me from pursuing this lifelong interest.

Beyond CAD, robotics allowed me to cultivate leadership, public speaking, design, and problem-solving skills. I found myself giving presentations to groups of children at schools and libraries, community members interested in our program, the School Board, and reaching out to businesses for sponsorship. I contacted other teams to solve problems and ask for advice. I was honored when our mentors asked me to serve as the inaugural team captain based on my dedication prior to our first competition just two months after starting our journey.

On my 18th birthday, March 23rd, 2023, I stood on the arena floor for our first regional competition, marking my transition into adulthood surrounded by a sport I had come to love and a team with whom I had formed lifelong friendships. Days later, I experienced pure elation as we were awarded the Inspirational Rookie honor, validating months of hard work.

Alongside my team, I remain actively involved in the off-season. I lead outreach events at local schools to inspire the next generation in STEM. I have found myself mentoring a new middle school team every week that our team helped found, called the Titans, which takes part in the FIRST Tech Challenge. Just this weekend I spoke at a local festival to community members of every age and walk of life, teaching them about our program and watching their eyes light up when they saw our robot and what our team has managed to accomplish in just one year.

The journey from a Google survey to captaining the Olympians has reignited my passion for STEM and has awakened a mission within me to provide my community with an opportunity for others to explore this interest as I have. As a soon-to-be first-generation college student, opportunities like these were sometimes limited growing up rural and i want to expand these to in my surrounding area. Robotics truely exposed me to a world of possibilities I'd never encountered before. I discovered the joy of bringing ideas to life through CAD and leading peers united by a common goal.

My high school robotics experience equipped me with technical and leadership abilities while allowing me to make an impact on STEM education. As I look towards college and beyond, I aim to continue finding opportunities to pursue my passions while empowering others. The skills and perspectives I've gained have shaped me into a driven, creative problem-solver committed to uplifting my community. I am prepared to take on new challenges and embrace the endless possibilities ahead thanks to the profound yet unexpected journey set into motion by a single Google survey.