As a freshman, I discovered the team at my high school was falling apart and barely competitive. I wanted the experience of playing on good team, so I got to work. Over the next three years, I dragged a few struggling robots to completion, organized a sustainable structure for leadership, reached out to my connections in the community for mentors and support. In designing the functionality of the robotics team I put student leadership first, because the lessons I learned hands on as captain are invaluable to me in the real world.

In addition to serving as team captain, I was also in charge of the mechanical subteam for three years. The experience taught me the importance of rapid prototyping, modeling before construction, and delegation. I pulled in my connections to improve our capabilities, and got good at improvising repairs.