End of Year, Senior Stuff and Summer Happenings

Hello! Just a quick update here from Captain Grace. We're in the middle of transitioning leadership right now so that means you'll get a new blog writer too (as I'm off to college in the fall and no longer on the team.) But it's never too late for an update.

In recent news:

In April, the World Championships were held here in St. Louis. Being a local team, we once again had the opportunity to travel down to the Edward Jones Dome for a field trip one day to just hang out and check out the happenings. We met lots of awesome people, saw lots of cool robots, and watched some intense matches. One of our members, Walter, even got to hang out with a team from Canada that would eventually go on to be on of the champions. So yeah, we've got friends in high places, no biggie.

Three members; Walter, Michael, and myself; also attended RoboProm that week, where we danced the night away with other geeks dressed to the nines and the ones and everything in between. Here we are below, with Shrapnel Sergeants member Nisha Rao, next to Walter (on the right end.) We look a little disgruntled, this picture was taken after we'd already been dancing and flailing around for a few hours. (And yes, that is a dress made out of old robotics shirts I'm wearing.)

In May, we celebrated the end of our season by hosting our annual end-of-season party at Frank and Helen's, a local pizza joint. It was bittersweet for us captains and seniors, as it was the last time we'll be there (as team members, at least!)

Also in May was the Academic Awards banquet, held at our school. All participating FRC team members received varsity letters, and those who have been on the team for more than one year also received FIRST pins.

Back row, from left: Jonah Zukosky, Henry Braekse, Coach Dave Sarber

Front row, from left: Joshua Stueck, Christine Politte, Walter Deitzler, Carl Sechrist, Lafayette Gatewood IV, Marquise Williams, Grace Deitzler, Michael Sarber, Dan Politte

Now, before I move on to summer happenings, I wanted to both thank all of the graduating seniors for their contributions to the team and also share a little bit about where they're headed off to next year.

Mike Sarber will be attending Saint Louis University to study Mechanical Engineering.

Daniel Politte will be attending Washington University in St. Louis, and he's not entirely sure (at least when I last talked to him) what he's going to study, but something in computer engineering maybe.

Paul Watkins will be attending Stanford University to study Mechanical Engineering.

Lafayette Gatewood IV will be attending the Missouri University of Science and Technology to study computer engineering.

Carl Sechrist will be attending University of Colorado at Boulder to study Physics.

And Grace Deitzler (me!) will be attending the Missouri University of Science and Technology to study Biological Sciences and Information Technology.

On to summer happenings! There will be meetings scheduled periodically throughout the summer as the team continues to work on various things, such as learning new technologies, organizing the room, fundraising and looking to gain sponsorship. Keep an eye out for emails/facebook posts about the next meeting, students!

Alright, that's about all I can think of. Until we get a new blog writer or I leave for college (whichever comes first) I'll try to keep you all updated throughout the summer as much as possible. 

Peace,

Grace Deitzler, Captain