Pacific Northwest District Championships
Two weeks ago, ORF went to the Pacific Northwest District Championships to compete with 64 other teams from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, to see who would go to the World Championships in Houston, Texas, from April 18th to the 20th. Only the top 28 ranking teams in the PNW district, plus teams that had won specific awards, would be invited to Houston. Although our drive team kept us in contention. We had bad luck and finished in 30th place in the district. We had hoped that two teams would decline their invitations. However, only one dropped out, and our competition season came to an end,
However, the experience did provide some great things for our team. Multiple students attended seminars on how to integrate engineering into community outreach and how to attract more girls to the STEM program and the Girls FIRST Initiative. Members of the team were able to meet with the president of FIRST Washington, Erin McCallum, to discuss our participation in helping run an all-girls day camp this May with Amazon. Other beneficial experiences from the event were Odyssey’s first climb and conversations pwith Autodesk employees and potential coworkers. We also formed new connections with other PNW teams, such as team 3218: Panther Bots, 2557: SOTAbots, 4915: Spartronics, 360: The Revolution, and others, whom we will be helping with recruitment. We will also be collaborating in scouting using ORF’s scouting app. Even though we will not be going to Houston, the team will stay busy with the summer camp, fostering new relationships with other FIRST teams and preparing for our celebration events. On May 10th, we hosted our Sponsor Thank You event. Later in the school year we had a team celebration. After the annual postseason discussion, the team is already starting next year’s Chairman’s Award, summer project ideas, and recruitment plans.
Despite coming up short, we competed with honor. The truth about FRC is that it doesn’t end with the competition season. FRC never ends, even after students leave the team for college. We will always be working towards a better future that will ensure our community and team continue to live long and prosper. I will leave the team with these words of encouragement; Houston 2019, here we come.
Two weeks ago, ORF went to the Pacific Northwest District Championships to compete with 64 other teams from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, to see who would go to the World Championships in Houston, Texas, from April 18th to the 20th. Only the top 28 ranking teams in the PNW district, plus teams that had won specific awards, would be invited to Houston. Although our drive team kept us in contention. We had bad luck and finished in 30th place in the district. We had hoped that two teams would decline their invitations. However, only one dropped out, and our competition season came to an end,
However, the experience did provide some great things for our team. Multiple students attended seminars on how to integrate engineering into community outreach and how to attract more girls to the STEM program and the Girls FIRST Initiative. Members of the team were able to meet with the president of FIRST Washington, Erin McCallum, to discuss our participation in helping run an all-girls day camp this May with Amazon. Other beneficial experiences from the event were Odyssey’s first climb and conversations pwith Autodesk employees and potential coworkers. We also formed new connections with other PNW teams, such as team 3218: Panther Bots, 2557: SOTAbots, 4915: Spartronics, 360: The Revolution, and others, whom we will be helping with recruitment. We will also be collaborating in scouting using ORF’s scouting app. Even though we will not be going to Houston, the team will stay busy with the summer camp, fostering new relationships with other FIRST teams and preparing for our celebration events. On May 10th, we hosted our Sponsor Thank You event. Later in the school year we had a team celebration. After the annual postseason discussion, the team is already starting next year’s Chairman’s Award, summer project ideas, and recruitment plans.
Despite coming up short, we competed with honor. The truth about FRC is that it doesn’t end with the competition season. FRC never ends, even after students leave the team for college. We will always be working towards a better future that will ensure our community and team continue to live long and prosper. I will leave the team with these words of encouragement; Houston 2019, here we come.