Four California FIRST teams -Team Spyder 1622, MSET Fish 649, MSET Cuttlefish 6165, and Eagle Engineering 1138 – traveled to Washington, DC where they joined more robotics students from across the nation to advocate for increased federal STEM funding during the 9th annual National Advocacy Conference (NAC) June 26th – June 28th.

The conference, presented by the Student Association for STEM Advocacy, helps develop student advocates to expand access to STEM opportunities. SASA founder and president, Frank Ferrari, had this to say about the conference: “The impact these students have on shaping our future is real! The relationships the teams develop impacts how our elected officials vote on important STEM issues as we attempt to make STEM accessible to everyone!”

Students and Mentors were prepared for meetings with their Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill with:

• a walk through of the basics of advocacy while focusing on how to build and leverage relationships with elected officials to advance STEM programs
• hands-on and practical introduction on what skills are needed to be an effective advocate for STEM at the local, state, and federal levels.
• education about ESSA and Title IV-A, and USICA
• coaching and live role plays to help them talk to their Members of Congress
• time to get together in advocacy groups, by state, to practice speaking to Senator’s and Congress representatives.

By the end of the conference, our California FIRST teams were ready to put their practice into action and had meetings with the following Senators and Representatives:

• United States Senator Alex Padilla – California
• United States Senator Dianne Feinstein – California
• United States Representative Sara Jacobs, 53^rd District – California
• United States Representative Darrell Issa, 50^th District – California
• United States Representative Mike Levin, 49^th District – California

During their meetings with these Congress Members and their staff, teams urged lawmakers to increase funding for grants used for STEM engagement activities, including raising funding for grants in Title IV-A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to the authorized level of $1.6 billion and supporting the NSF grants in the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA).

Team Spyder member, Brendan Aeria said, “Participating in the National Advocacy Conference has made a huge impact on me, because it has taught me a lot that I would have never known about our government, and how I can be active and push for policies that I believe in, such as robotics funding. I gained a lot of confidence in my everyday conversations and especially with future public speaking by advocating to elected officials and their staff.

By the end of the conference, team members gained valuable real-life skills and saw first-hand how advocating as a group can create great impact.

Robotics California Advocacy Coalition begins.

On July 20, 2022, California robotics teams that attended the NAC 2022 gathered together via Zoom across the state to organize unified robotics and STEAM advocacy efforts with MSET Fish and Team Spyder leading the way with five founding members of this coalition, namely FRC 649, FRC/VEX 1138, FRC/FTC 1622, FRC 6165 & FTC 12675. 

They will be working with local and California government through policy legislation, to influence, and advocate to legislature in the state Senate and Assembly. If you are interested in becoming a part of the Robotics California Advocacy Coalition and upcoming events, indicate your interest via their sign up form.

We are so proud of all 64 FIRST teams from California who brought their “A” game to compete, collaborate, have fun and make memories along with nearly 800 other student robotics teams from 43 countries around the globe!  

FIRST Championship, the world’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for students, celebrated the conclusion of the 2021-2022 robotics season, FIRST FORWARD presented by Qualcomm, with 30,000 students, mentors/coaches, volunteers, sponsors, media, and supporters.

Congratulations to the following California teams, students and volunteers who are bringing home a huge amount of impressive awards.

CALIFORNIA AWARDS AT CHAMPIONSHIP

DIVISIONS:

• On the Winning Alliances: Team 604, Quixilver (Carver), Team 1323, MadTown Robotics (Carver), Team 254, The Cheesy Poofs (Galileo), Team 1678, Citrus Circuits (Hopper), Team 973, Greybots (Newton), Team 5940, BREAD (Roebling). Team 4414, HighTide (Turing)
• On the Finalists Alliances: Team 1138, Eagle Engineering (Carver), Team 3476, Code Orange  (Galileo), Team 846, The Funky Monkeys  (Galileo), Team 971, Spartan Robotics (Turing)
• Innovation in Control Award – Team 846, The Funky Monkeys  (Galileo)
• Imagery Award – Team 3476, Code Orange  (Galileo)
• Gracious Professionalism Award – Team 3128, Aluminum Narwhals (Hopper)
• Autonomous Award – Team 1678, Citrus Circuits (Hopper)
• Highest Rookie Seed – Team 8840, Bay Robotics (Roebling)
• Entrepreneurship Award – Team 5940, BREAD (Roebling)
• Team Spirit Award – Team 115, MVRT (Roebling)
• Industrial Design Award – Team 971, Spartan Robotics (Turing)
• Quality Award – Team 4414, HighTide (Turing)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Many many thanks to all the mentors, volunteers, sponsors and parents who helped make this all possible! With extra special thanks to the 2022 FIRST Championship Presenting Sponsor Qualcomm who continues to fully embrace the FIRST community with open arms and great generosity.