Starting A Movement.

We came into robotics knowing that it was a field densely by boys. This did not stop any of us. We formed together as a team in late August. We began our robotics journey with three people, and from then on more started adding on to our team one by one. By this point we had eight people. Unfortunately, 9th grade drama got the best of some of us, and caused the team to decrease by half, giving us a total of four remaining members. Thankfully, we four members that remain work incredibly well together, and since then, there have been no team conflicts. We are an all girls team with multiple friends at school. Our goal is to break stereotypes and show others that robotics can be a very diverse program. And no matter what your background, it’s never too late, you can do it. We came into robotics with no prior experience. ZIP, NADA, ZERO, engineering experience. Being an all girl rookie team with no experience did not stop us. We got to work following a guide that FTC Robotics provided. Now you're probably asking, "What the heck is FTC?" FTC stands for First Tech Challenge. The organization FIRST gives a new challenge every year for teams to do. Teams immediately start making robots that can accommodate the challenge that FIRST has assigned. For more information on FTC, you can visit the FIRST website.

The very first robot we made
 named "Stephane"

Anyway, we began making a very standard robot that could do very standard things. We named this robot Stephane. This robot wasn't the best and couldn't do much. Later on, we built a robot that could do many more things. We named it OG Wobble. Original Gangster Wobble was named this because it was the coolest robot we had ever built and it tended to wobble a lot. This robot took us all the way to the State Championships.
When we were at the State Championships we were met with only two other all girls teams. There were many all boys teams in sight, but not too many containing girls. We fought our way through the day. Everything that could could go wrong, went wrong. We did not have a lot of luck during this tournament.

So now the big picture.
We completed our first robotics season as a rookie team. Now we are trying to spread the word that being a girl in robotics doesn't have to be a huge deal. No one should be surprised or shocked or sarcastically wish you luck. We want it to be a normal thing. If a girl says she's joining a robotics team, the response should just be "Oh cool!". We want more girls in STEM. Our mission is to reach as many people as possible. We want to inspire people, girls especially, too go after what they want, always. If a girl wants to be involved in engineering, she should go for it. Make a wave. Get the ball rolling. Start a movement. That is the goal of this blog.