In fourth grade I helped start Green Girls Robotics, an all-girls FIRST Lego League team out of Eagan, MN. I created this team because I wanted everyone on it to explore their interests in science and technology regardless of the gender norms and stereotypes that existed even in a fourth grade classroom. As we grew up through the FIRST robotics programs my teammates and I became interested in securing opportunities for the underrepresented groups in STEM including females, People Of Color, children in the foster care system, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ persons.
Today I realized that, at twenty years old, I have spent nearly half of my life in FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics .
Every Monday, Friday, and Sunday of my high school career you could find me sitting in a shop writing code and building robots. For at least nine hours a week I collaborated with my team Green Girls Robotics to get ready for competitions and outreach events.