TL Robotics Fund for Houston

We are a small, rural school with a total of 75 students in our high school, and we are one of the two schools in the Columbia Gorge that has a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. The robotics program gives high schoolers a unique opportunity to venture into the field of STEM. It also gives students the chance to work with others, problem solve, and learn from positive adult role models.

Each January, a new challenge is released by FIRST Robotics and our team has six weeks to design, fabricate, program, and test a robot suitable for the competition. Following this six week “build season,” we attend two qualifying competitions in the Pacific Northwest. If we place well in these, we can qualify for the Pacific Northwest Districts Tournament in Cheney, Washington and the World Championship in Houston, Texas in the spring, which we attended in 2018. Despite last year’s 2021-2022 team being almost entirely completely comprised of rookies, we performed very well, making it to Cheney for Districts. So far in the 2022-2023 school year, our team has attended the preseason events “Girl’s Gen” (in which the three girls on our team were responsible for driving and strategizing) and “Bunny Bots.” We are currently in the midst of constructing our robot for the upcoming regular season! We have several robotics rookies on our team this year as well, eager to make up for time lost during the pandemic and try something new.

As the 2023 season approaches we kindly ask you for donations. Our goal this year is to make it to Houston again, which would be out of the question for a small school like us without your support. Let me introduce you to our team!

Kim: Kim is an exchange student from France. She is the top teen roboticist from France and we recruited her to hopefully secure a trip to Houston.

Tommy: Tommy is a senior, and is in his second year on the team. He enjoys rock climbing almost as much as robotics.

Willa: Bee queen, minion wrangler, woods runner, and avid dance party attender.

Rowan: While Rowan may not even have his driver's license yet, he is in the process of building an electric car.

Ronan: Not to be confused with Rowan, does have his driver’s license, which he puts to good use as one of our key drivers on the team. He also serves as our highly respected Safety Captain.

Basil: Basil is a proud new owner of a Macbook Pro, and he won’t be quiet about it. Our most passionate member of robotics.

Jasper: Jasper enjoys skiing, as well as playing the guitar.

Michael: Michael is the guardian of the robotics cart and is in charge of transporting our robot and computers safely, a job that he takes seriously. His goal this year is to completely redo the robot cart.

Faith: Faith, being but a wee 8th grader, is not allowed to attend competitions, but is so passionate about robotics that she attends every meeting anyway. She learns from the robotics seniors on the team with enthusiasm and is an up-and-coming force in STEM to be on the lookout for.

Anna: Even though this is Anna’s first year in robotics, she has already earned the highly contested title of Coopertition Strategician.

Trevor: Trevor is the true STEM trifecta: Analytical. Logical. Calculating. The silent killer of Team 3711.

Brenna: Sharp, sassy, superfluous. Proud robotics 10 with a passion for STEM.

Betty: Betty can speak German. Der Roboter hält Betty gegen ihren Willen davon ab, diese Biografie zu schreiben, und schickt Verstärkung.

Saul: Saul always wears a beanie. What’s under it? We’ll never know.

Eli: Like his brother, Eli wears many hats. He is a rock-climber, philosopher, Eberhard's milk consumer, and a certified chilla.

Ev: ev is so cute

And our mentors...

Kira: So highly respected amongst our team that she has earned the title of “Coach.” Simple, but powerful. Without Coach, none of us would be anything.

Rod: Rodeo King for 37 consecutive years. Witnessed the Roaring 20’s the first time around. Scuba dives as a hobby; his record deepest dive was 3.4 miles. Nickname: Dr. Doom.

Dennis M.: Remarkable tenacity; remains as a mentor for the team after his kids have long graduated. We’re not sure why he’s still here, but boy are we glad he is.

Dennis H.: The Other Dennis. Or perhaps, the First Dennis (he is older). Comes in clutch with an annual Boeing grant and arguably deserves the title of MVP.

Terry: Avid Collector of Tractors. Entrepreneur with his own gravel company and an inspiration to us all.

Jeff: Has a college degree in jazz guitar, and in an odd turn of events, now runs a sawmill optimization company.

Jason: Jason was born and raised in LA, but you’d never know it from how well he blends in with the country hicks. When he’s not filling the enormous shoes of the team’s favorite mentor, he runs his own Youtube channel as a lifestyle vlogger.