Oak Grove High School Eaglebots Face All Odds
From the moment you walk into the International Botball® Tournament the room seems to be bursting at the seams with uncontrollable excitement, off-the-charts tension, and near total chaos.
The Global Conference is a scene that thousands of middle school and high school students have worked toward for nearly six months, and one that most will never experience.
But for the students of San Jose, California’s Oak Grove High School Eaglebots, it’s more than just a fun contest; it’s their opportunity to show the world that they have what it takes to succeed in a technological world.
Led by Team Leader Rohit Krishna, senior, this team of twenty-one students, placed fifth overall at the International Botball® Tournament in Leesburg, Virginia, July 1-5, 2009, after they swept the Northern California Regional Botball® Tournament in March 2009.
Although you’d never know by their performance, these students have the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Most of them immigrants, these bright students hail from thirteen different cultures and speak nine different languages.
Many of the Eaglebots are still learning English as they stay on top of their school work in hopes of getting scholarships for college, help with housework and often carry a part-time job or two just to help make ends-meet in a plummeting economy and a neighborhood that constantly reminds them of their cultural and socio-economic difference.
“A number of the students do not have parents in the country, so they have to help support whoever they are living with… these kids never whined, they never complained. They want a better life and they have chosen a path to work hard and make their lives better,” said Jeanie Romanoff, the team’s trusted adviser and Oak Grove High School Special Education teacher.
Funding is extremely limited and must be raised by the students with Romanoff’s help.
“I am the coach, fund raiser, leader, teacher, collector of mentors, writer of grants, and scholarships, builder of life skills and career planning,” Romanoff said.
Romanoff explained that only thing she doesn’t like about Botball® has little to do with Botball® at all. In fact, Romanoff said the only thing she doesn’t like is “the stress of scrapping for funds to pay for the (robotics) kits and travel to the (Global) conference.”
As for what Romanoff does enjoy about the Botball® Educational Robotics Program… “It is a wonderful way to network with teachers, engineers, and scientists from around the world,” she said.
The annual Global Conference on Educational Robotics, which includes the International Botball® Tournament, lasts five days, and is held in a different location every July.
In the past the Global Conference on Educational Robotics has been held in locations such as Norman, Oklahoma, Jacksonville, Florida, and Honolulu, Hawaii; but it hasn’t been to San Jose since 2004 making it more and more difficult for the team to compete at the International level.
“The students, with a desire to learn, regardless of how social or economically poor they may be, can teach themselves skills from how to program, how to build, and how to sell themselves to the community at large,” Romanoff said about what she has learned from her students.
With Romanoff’s help, the Eaglebots have learned to market themselves and their team quite well, which has resulted in a recent surge of publicity for the team.
Local California news outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle, KICU-7 abc7news, KTVU-2, Los Angeles Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, California Chronicle, and the American Chronicle have covered the story of the Eaglebots’ rise to the top of the Botball® Ranks, providing publicity coverage that goes unrivaled within the Botball® community.
The Eaglebots have also received radio interview coverage on KCBS Radio, KLIV Radio, and KGO Radio, as well as online coverage at TheRobot.net.
“I felt that they were very determined to do their very best, they gave up sleep, they gave up a lot of fun activities so they could work on the robots and make sure that they could compete at the highest level possible,” Romanoff said.
To learn more about the Oak Grove Eaglebots, visit their website at http://www.regathon.com/eaglebots.
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