Senior Moments Column: Inspiring the next generation

Robotics has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Our team, the Gearheads, has always prided ourselves on our community involvement, especially our annual pep rallies.

At the pep rallies, students from Kindergarten to high school get to meet Sparky, our robot, and see him complete whatever task First Tech Challenge (FTC), the program all robotics teams compete through, has created for that year. When I was younger, I remember looking forward to seeing the big kids show off Sparky.

And now, here I am, one of those big kids.

Last year, robotics was my main focus. I dedicated hours to ensure our team a chance at state, going so far as programming a code to make the robot run without human intervention, teaching the younger members how to conduct an interview and reaching out to workers in our community in STEM careers. All of these things and more make up the main values of FTC. Since we rarely have the best robot at the competitions, I was determined for us to be the best team.

Our interview went smoothly, and the judges came back several times to talk to us at the annual district competition hosted at SEMO. Typically, an interview is where you get the opportunity to brag about everything that happens outside of competitions. You talk about how involved the community is, how you got your ideas for the robot and how you work together as a team. Without a good interview, getting the Inspire Award is impossible. The Inspire Award is a prize given to the team that represents FTC’s core values of discovery, innovation, teamwork and gracious professionalism. This award guarantees the receiving team a spot at state.

My hopes soared as we walked into the awards ceremony, knowing we had done the best we could. Our whole team was shocked when they announced we had received the Inspire Award.

We went to state a few weeks later, and while it was a great experience, we walked away without an award. But we were far from empty-handed. We had reached our goal, and we had done it as a team.

This year, the Gearheads will be losing three seniors: our lead programmer, an excellent driver for the robot during competitions, and me, the so-called jack-of-all-trades team member and lead team interviewer.

With that being said, that also means I have the main responsibility of teaching the younger members. After all, I have always been the one to step forward when our coach needed me, so I took them under my wing for our most recent competition. They came with me for robot inspections and to talk to teams we’d be working with during our rounds, and they have been learning how to drive Sparky during their spare time.

My last district meet is approaching, and each time I think about it, my heart sinks a little more. Robotics has been a part of my life for so long that imagining giving it up is hard. Our team has always stuck together, through our best and worst competitions and moments. And unfortunately, I will not be able to be present at the district meet. Instead, I will be at BETA State, a club that prides itself on leadership, service, character and achievement, in Branson, Mo.

All I can do is help prepare our team to face it and trust them to try their hardest, since that’s what we’ve always done. We adapt and work with what we have, no matter what. I will miss them as I move on, but I will try to attend future competitions. After all, robotics has made me a hard worker with the ability to talk to anybody and find some way to compromise as a team. It has made me a better person overall, and for that, I will forever be thankful.

Shandy Elfrink is a senior at Leopold High School. She has attended Leopold High School since Kindergarten and loves reading, writing, listening to music, and hanging out with friends and family.