Jr. FLL - Overview

Name: Starting Jr. FLL in Grand Junction
Type: Service, Creativity
Date: August- Mid-September 2016

Jr. FLL, or Junior FIRST LEGO League, is a program for grades K - 4 that aims to inspire kids to pursue the world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) (just like all the programs of FIRST) through exploring a yearly concept in science-fair fashion, and creating a LEGO model to represent their understanding.

This is a self-motivated effort to bring the program of Jr. FLL to the Grand Valley, and to host a Jr. FLL Expo at the end of the teams' season that brings in teams from Mesa County and Garfield County in Colorado.

So far my progress includes informing myself about Jr. FLL to become the local contact for all local teams who are just starting to launch themselves into their seasons. I've been reaching out to local elementary schools (including Holy Family Catholic School and Pomona Elementary, and soon Caprock Charter School), the local Girl Scout Troops, and soon the Math and Science Center. I've secured Redlands Middle School as the location of the Expo Event through District 51, and I've been preparing to host a Kickoff Event at the public library for teams to get excited about starting the season and finish getting registered.

So far, the local interest has grown from 0 to 5 teams in Grand Junction, and from 2 teams in Garfield County to 4 teams. I'm excited to have a minimum of 9 teams attending the Expo Event, set for Mid- December. It should also be mentioned that I'm starting and mentoring one of the local teams. After this week, the focus will shift from garnering interest to getting volunteers for the event from both my Hi Fives Robotics Team and from Mesa State College students.

Here are my roles as Jr. FLL Grand Junction Coordinator outlined:
(I did this as a visual for Raleigh, who I'm mentoring in taking on the program for next year when I graduate, but found it appropriate to add it here now :)

Note: This is just an overview of the activity, a more reflective analysis is coming in the next post.

Jr. FLL GJ Coordinator

• Planning and Executing the annual Grand Junction Jr. FLL Expo at the end of the season
• Hosting a Jr. FLL Kickoff at the beginning of the Season
• Following up and making sure teams are registered at the beginning of the season
• Knowing Jr. FLL and being able to answer questions/ guide new teams through registration
• Being a link between Jr. FLL, the Hi Fives, and FIRST Representative in Denver.

Nursing Homes, Continued..

Name: Beauty Queens Visit at Comfort Care Homes
Type: Service
Date: September 09, 2016

I've been a volunteer with HopeWest Hospice Care for over a year now, but yesterday's experience was one which was completely worthy of writing about. We went to a nursing home which I'd gone to last many months ago up in the Redlands to paint the ladies' nails and do a facial for them, and to generally speak with them and ask the about their days. Well, yesterday I noticed one of the ladies and invited her to come get a facial, and she told me yea, she remembered how this worked from last time we were here. It turned out that she was the very same lady I'd gotten last time we came to that nursing home which I'd liked so much, and here she was again. I hadn't recognized her, but she'd recognized me! I was ecstatic. After doing her facial to the best of my abilities, I gave her a hug and walked her to the backyard so she could go outside for a little bit. It's this kind of super-bonding moments that I live for, the fact that two individuals from two completely different worlds could and should interact together for the mutually beneficial effect their encounter has on both of them.

I wonder if I should return to the nursing home to visit with this lady again just for the fun of it. I know that not a lot of people visit those in their old age, which is something that particularly concerns me, because I know that in the culture I come from elders are typically expected to be taken care of by their children even unto their death. Nursing homes are a concept not very heard of on Ecuador. I understand that sometimes the heavy needs of the elderly could be burdensome on the working individual, specially in America where the culture has it so that families easily disperse to different corners of the country from the rest of their families in pursuit of their financial security, but the company of their family should be almost indispensable for any individual. People crave other's company, and will always have a need for it, even if they deny it.

I also question the morality of my opinions given the fact that my family also lives far away from the rest of our family (my grandparents included). Should I also call my grandparents (and my family) more often? If I am troubled by this problem in my volunteering and in the world, I should first aim to address it in my daily life...

Post-Summer Post

Name: Demo- Movie Under the Stars

Type: Service

Date: June 2016

This summer I organized a robotics demonstration to about 200 people attending a Movie Under the Stars event in Glade Park, CO with my robotics team. My role was the logistics and the communication that comes with getting our team to the site and planning and leading our demonstration. It was particularly a memorable and important experience and I was able to speak in front of a crowd for the first  time with the purpose of entertaining. Our team had a blast presenting, shooting our robot canon around, answering questions, and getting closer to each other, and we were congratulated by the Friends of the Library staff that sets up the event and were even invited back. This event had a lasting impact, I think because it informed many people about opportunities to get involved with robotics, and I like to think inspired many young kids to see how cool the engineering, mechanics, and science that comes into building a robot is, so that hopefully when they grow up they become interested in these fields, which are continuously under-employed but so essential to the advancement of our society. This is my goal as an IB thinker and learner: to be able to impact the lives of kids and allow them to see a pathway they may never have imagined for themselves.

Drive In Movie and Canned Food Drive

Type: Creativity and Service

Date: December 29,2015

Just some pics from a couple months ago (a little late, I know) and a very fun experience running my own activity night for my Robotics team. It came up at a Marketing sub-Team meeting that the Hi Fives needed to have some team building time once in a while, and the idea of a Drive In Movie that doubled as a Canned Food Drive in time for the Holidays was brought up. I decided to take on the challenge, and to make things even better for the team, to incorporate FIRST Lego League kids into the activity (We are always trying to encourage lego league kids to continue with robotics as they grow up, what better way than to invite them to fun joint activities with the Hi Fives?) We built card-board box cars (which required lots of cooperation and ingenuity if they were to finish in the given time frame!) We also had a great time watching a Robotics-themed movie called RoboLeague. I had a blast planning and contacting and coordinating, but I couldn't have done it without the help of everyone present. I learned that the benefit of planning such events very much outweighs the costs, and I will continue hosting camps/activities in the future! (Maybe a Photoshop and Photography class with the help of my other marketing team members? We will have to see!)

FBLA State Competitions

Type: Action and Creativity
Date: February 9, 2016
This last Monday, my FBLA Chapter at Palisade High School attended District 9's Competitions at Colorado Mesa University. We have been actively meeting to prepare each of our individual and team events for the last two months or so. This is all so we can move up and keep competing at State Competitions and finally, to NATIONALS, which this year will be held at Atlanta, Georgia. (I attended last year's Nationals Competitions in Chicago for my Business Plan, which got second place Statewide! It was definitely a great learning experience and so much fun!) This year, I competed in the Economics Test for my individual competition and Social Media Campaign for my team competition (with my friend  and teammate Cheyenne), and received first place for Economics and first place for Social Media Campaign. Ten of us qualified to move on to state, and everyone except one member are going to attend. We are soo excited and ready to represent Palisade! I'm mostly excited for the amount of new members we have this year that I can show how cool our business competition at Vail, CO is. Now our next step is to fundraise money to pay for travel costs. We collected about $150 profit with our Valentine's Day cookie sales, and will keep fundraising by asking local businesses to donate. We are PaliFBLA and State Competitions, here we come!

Robotics Marketing Team Dos Hombres Fundraiser

Robotics Marketing Team Dos Hombres Fundraiser

Type: Service and Creativity

Date: January 27, 2016

This is from a couple weeks back when my robotics team went to the Dos Hombres Give Back Night to kick butt and represent our team to the community. This was obviously a fundraiser experience, but it was the first time the marketing team got to put into action all the helpful marketing advice we received from Ryan Lewis Marketing Solutions. I am the student lead of the marketing team, and in my team we always aim to have fun. This event's challenges were that it required all the standard marketing procedures: I created a Press Release to be sent to the media to invite them to our event and created coupons, Cameryn created an email to send out to all team members and family to invite them to support us, Madi created a background for the Facebook page to advertise and coordinated imagery with Ryan Lewis. Dennis created 3D Printed Pins to give out to donators. And our awesome mentor Catherine prepared the robot to bring to the event and printed out all flyer and coupons to bring to the event. And of course Rosa was there to document the event in-the-moment to Snapchat and Instagram! Team cooperation is super essential and this is what makes it all fun! GO FIRST ROBOTICS! Go Hi Fives!