Our club at St. Mary Central high school in Neenah, WI, has been involved with the VEX and FIRST Robotics programs for nearly 10 years. During those years, our club has attended World's nearly every season, including all 6 of our teams attending the World Competition last year (one of the largest showings of teams from a single school).
We have an incredibly strong program at SMC, with some of the most dedicated mentors and parents that you will find anywhere. Most of our mentors have been with our program since its conception, dedicating countless hours to our success. We also have great generational strength with as many as 2-3 generations of siblings taking part in our program.
This season, we have 7 separate teams (1200A through 1200G) and over 30 members in our Robotics club. These 30 students make up 15% of the 200 student population at our school. By the time the year is through, our members will have dedicated nearly 150 days of Robotics engineering to our club (about 200 man-hours per week).
Our club is also closely woven with our community:
We have fostered an 8th-Grade program in the past that has allowed younger students to compete at a high school level while allowing them to learn about VEX at a more relaxed pace. This program has helped spark many students' interest in VEX and our program, and nearly every student that has participated in this program during their 8th grade year has continued with VEX into high school.
Every year, our club hosts open houses and visit days in which we have student-led demonstrations to attract future students to both our school and VEX. This year alone, we had approximately 25 7th grade students who are already interested in joining VEX.
We have also held demonstrations at EAA AirVenture, along with being featured in numerous newspaper articles concerning our success in VEX.
The success and knowledge cultivated by our program has infected the students who participate in it at a deep level. Many students have continued their education after high school, and have become, are going to become, or are considering becoming engineers.
There can be no doubt as to the effect that VEX has had on our community, our school, our program, and our students.
I also wanted to take a moment to thank all the mentors that make our club possible, including: Greg (You're amazing!), Mr. Schanke, Mr. Batzler, Mr. Tully, Mr. Levine, Mr. Konetzke, and all the parents that allow us to be in such an awesome club! Thanks for all you do!