Girls Who Inspire

I spent the last weekend in Spokane, Washington at a robotics tournament. It was not the kind of thing I would have ever expected I would be doing, much less enjoying. Relishing, actually. After a lifetime focusing on anything NOT having to do with STEM, I have a daughter who lives for it. Her all-girl robotics team just won the top competition award, the Inspire Award, at the Western Regional Championship. That promotes them to the World Championship in Houston next month.

This was the 2nd year in a row that they won this award. Inconceivable. It was a first for the competition that the same team won twice in a row. It just doesn’t happen.

What IS the Inspire Award?

From firstinspires.org:

This judged award is given to the Team that embodied the ‘challenge’ of the FIRST Tech Challenge program. The Team that receives this award is a strong ambassador for FIRST programs and a role model FIRST Team. This Team is a top contender for many other judged awards and is a gracious competitor. The Inspire Award winner is an inspiration to other Teams, acting with Gracious Professionalism® both on and off the Playing Field. This Team shares their experiences, enthusiasm and knowledge with other Teams, sponsors, their community, and the Judges. Working as a unit, this Team will have showed success in performing the task of designing and building a Robot.

Required criteria for the Inspire Award:

• Team shows respect and Gracious Professionalism® to everyone they meet at a FIRST Tech Challenge event.
• Team is a strong contender for several other Judged awards. The Inspire Award celebrates the strongest qualities of all the Judged Awards.
• The Team is an ambassador for FIRST programs. They demonstrate and document their work in their community.
• Team is positive and inclusive, and each Team member contributes to the success of the Team.
• Team must submit an Engineering Notebook. The Engineering notebook must include an Engineering section, a Team section and a Business or Strategic Plan. The entire Engineering Notebook must be high quality, thoughtful, thorough, detailed and well organized.
• Robot design is creative and innovative, and the Robot performs reliably on the field. Team communicates clearly about their Robot design and strategy to the judges.
• Team presentation is professional and engaging.

These girls are the best of the best - they embody all that FIRST stands for. We’ll be up against some of the best teams in the world in Houston, but it doesn’t matter. They’ve already won just by winning a spot at the championship for the 2nd year in a row.

Help me cheer them on - in the competition and in their paths in life. I can’t wait to see where these girls will be in 10 years.