For the past six months, I have been working with a local community center in San Antonio. What an experience! When I first reached out to the local area community leaders, I had really no idea what I was getting myself into….as with most endeavours of mine.

The community leaders were excited about the idea of having a mock competition for the community center kids since the registration deadline had already passed for First Lego League. We thought it would be a great way to get the kids’ hands dirty and feet wet with robotics.

So, I went on a quest for resources. Luckily, one of people who is also serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA with FIRST, Clare, was interested in helping with the project. Without her, I would not have been able to see it through. I thought I could and quickly realized I was out of my mind to think I could single handedly start 12 robotics teams in the community center.

Once Clare was on board with the project, we were able to gather resources more effectively and efficiently as well as communicate with the different people and organizations involved. Together, we’ve been able to secure so many in-kind donations and volunteers.

The kids at the community center are ecstatic about the robotics teams we’ve built with them. Some kids had never heard of robotics, let alone though they could do it. With the help of some amazing volunteers from the University of Incarnate Word and local middle school students, the kids at the community center have built some top notch robots for their upcoming competition. They will be competing against themselves, as there are three solid teams that have formed from these efforts.

The mock competition will be happening on May 3rd at a local high school. It should be quite the event! I’ll post some photos and a wrap-up once it’s all over.