Tell us about yourself and how are you involved with FIRST?
Our team is an all-girls and gender minority team that competes in FTC. Our rookie year was 2016, meaning we’ve been competing for the past eight years (which is crazy to say). Our team this year is primarily made up of students in grades 11 and 12 this year, and we participate in all aspects of FTC. We’ve won the Inspire award at the Southern California regional championships for the past two years, and won the Think award in the Ochoa division at Worlds in the CenterStage Season. We also mentor an all-girls FLL team at a community center near us, which has been amazing!
How has FIRST helped you accomplish your goals?
FIRST has helped us accomplish our goals by encouraging our team members to dive into all different areas of STEM. From learning more about coding autonomous or connecting to STEM professionals in fields we are interested in, FIRST has pushed us to learn more about specific fields and how to apply them in and outside of a robotics context. Additionally, as one of Curiosity’s goals is to help bring STEM to our wider community, FIRST has allowed us to share robotics with all types of people who may never have the chance too otherwise.
Do you recall any special experiences or challenges?
A super special moment for our team last season was winning regionals. After gaining 12 new members, we had put in so much work and time into every part of our regional performance, from over 40+ hours just on CNCing our drivetrain panels or running through our judging presentation for hours. Advancing to worlds had been our dream goal since the start of the season, but we knew how difficult it would be to do so and how much luck is involved. When we won Inspire, our entire team was so excited and happy. It was a super sweet and exciting moment, and something we’ll cherish forever. Winning Inspire alongside another girls team (RNR) was also super exciting!
Why do you think FIRST is important for females?
FIRST is important to females as it allows women to enter and become engaged in the STEM field, which we are vastly underrepresented in. It gives women a way to engage with STEM from an early age, connect with other women in STEM, and most of all, show us how exciting STEM can be. Studies have shown time and time again that STEM subjects in the classroom often push women out of STEM fields, and FIRST offers a way for women to get involved in high school.
What are your goals for the future?
Our biggest goal for the future is to inspire more youth, specifically girls, to get interested in STEM. FIRST is something that brings us so much joy and opens up so many pathways, and we firmly believe that robotics should be accessible to anyone who wants to get involved.
What advice would you give to the younger generation of girls interested in STEAM fields?
Try everything, and don’t be afraid of failure. Every single engineer, top FTC team, and STEM professional has told our team that failure is an essential part of STEAM, and it’s the only way you can get better.
Do you have a woman you look up to/is your role model? If so, who is it and why?
Yes! Our team actually has a tradition where we name our robot after a female scientist we look up to, so last year our role model was Katherine Johnson. She’s an African-American woman who did trajectory analysis for NASA during America’s first human spaceflight in 1961 and helped calculate the Apollo 11 moon landing. We admire her ability to embrace challenges in the male-dominated field of robotics with such great tenacity and brilliance.
Do you know a student, alumni, mentor, volunteer or sponsor with a great story?
Click here to nominate your favorite #FIRSTLikeAGirl, to tell her story!