Waverly Robotics is Having Success On and Off the Field
Courtesy of Waverly Robotics
The Waverly High School Robotics Team “Error 404” recently bought a new trailer with the
help of the community and various community partners like Midwest Press & Automation LLC. Waverly Robotics was awarded the Impact Award and the Engineering Inspiration Award for their excellent STEM outreach across the Greater Lansing Area. The team will compete with teams across Michigan at the State Competition and hopefully win the Impact Award again.
Through the Night Out Fundraiser at UrbanBeat, Waverly Robotics finally accomplished their years long goal to purchase a new trailer. Obtaining the new trailer helps Waverly Robotics through their competitions, community events, and the ability to display the robots throughout Lansing. Every sponsor and community member that contributed to the success of the Night Out Fundraiser graciously led the team to their success in purchasing their long-awaited trailer.
Waverly Robotics participates in the FIRST Robotics program. The team builds a robot from scratch in six weeks and then competes at two competitions with other schools from Michigan. FIRST Robotics teams also work to make their communities better places, attend many community events, and inspire younger students to pursue careers and interests in STEM.
The FIRST Impact Award (formerly Chairman’s Award) is the most prestigious award at FIRST, it honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. It was created to keep the central focus of FIRST Robotics Competition on the goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become science and technology leaders.
Waverly Robotics is exceptionally proud of their community engagement which led to their winning the prestigious Impact Award. Having a strong and supportive community like Lansing motivated Waverly Robotics to spread STEM literacy and education across the community. Their outreach includes hosting a summer camp, attending Greater Lansing events and festivals, and providing work and learning opportunities for students. Other considerations for the award were assisting fellow robotics teams, hosting elementary level robotics competitions, and fundraising for different charities.
Team Captain Anna, a senior at Waverly High School, said “It was a great honor to be selected for this award. It feels good to be recognized for all the time that the team spends outside of the shop connecting with the community and showing people how fun STEM is. We look forward to continuing our outreach and finding new ways to help others.”
Waverly Robotics proudly won the Engineering Inspiration Award at their second district competition. The Engineering Inspiration Award Celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community.
“It’s incredible to be recognized for another community engagement award. As a newer team it’s amazing to finally have gotten such high honor. We are excited to compete for the Impact Award and the Engineering Inspiration Award at the State competition.” said Naomi, a sophomore on the team.
The FIRST Michigan State Competition is one week away, in which qualified teams across Michigan will compete at Saginaw Valley State University for three ambitious days. Waverly Robotics successfully fundraised with Royal Scot Golf & Bowl for the competition to make food, housing, and transportation affordable to the students. Stay tuned to the Waverly Robotics social media platforms for updates for the State Competition.
Waverly Robotics is a team dedicated to helping and supporting its community, by fostering the minds of its members to sharpen and grow their skills. This is the sixth year of the Robotics team at Waverly High School. There are 38 high school students involved in the program and 280 students from 3rd through 12th grade in the Waverly Community School District.
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