For the fifth year in a row, St. Clair College is supporting local high school FIRST Robotics teams with a $1,000 donation to each team.
This brings the total support for local teams to $125,000 since 2014.
St. Clair College is proud to be a Gold Sponsor of the Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Regional event, which will be held at the University of Windsor, March 28-30. It is one of the largest FIRST Robotics competitions in Canada, and draws over 1,500 students making up more than 45 teams.
The college has taken a leadership role in support of this exciting event. St. Clair played an integral role in the start-up of the Chatham-Kent CK Cyber Pack team in 2015, comprised of students from local high schools. The college also hosts the Lego Robotics annual competition geared to elementary school students. That event, too, has been a great hit.
“The underlying philosophy of FIRST Robotics – that the challenge of building something can be a highly educational adventure – reflects both the college’s hands-on academic environment and our effort to foster interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects,” said St. Clair President Patti France. “It also provides the teamwork, critical thinking and time-management skills that are so essential in all levels of education and employment. The college is pleased to support these competitors because we know they aren’t just building machines, they are building their futures.”
FIRST Robotics teams from 20 high schools gathered at St. Clair’s Student Life Centre on January 5 to learn what this year’s competition is all about. The teams were also presented with their cheques at this event. From this launch, teams will have six weeks to build their robots in time for the competition in March.
