Denby High School Robotics

Denby High School seniors Breana Haywood (left), Erica Green (middle) and a volunteer from the Michigan Engineering Zone (MEZ) work on the Rollin Stones' robot at the 2011 FIRST Robotics Detroit District Competition. Photo by Amanda Rodriguez. by Derrick Bean
COE Public Affairs Contributor

If Denby High School seniors Erica Green, 17, and Breana Haywood, 18, have learned one thing from participating in FIRST Robotics, it's that you never give up. Despite a handful of obstacles, the team captains were able to lead their teammates through the 2011 FIRST Robotics Detroit District Competition, held March 18-19 on Wayne State's campus, while keeping a positive attitude.

The graduating seniors will take their talents to Wayne State University this fall. "I'm excited," says Haywood, who will major in physical therapy.

Green, who was introduced to engineering as a freshman through a FIRST youth competition, will study mechanical and computer engineering. She was accepted to ITT Technical Institute and Devry University but chose Wayne State because "they have a good variety of engineering opportunities," Green says. "I love engineering. It's not boring. You always have a different challenge."

Green is well aware of the lack of female engineers in the industry. Although there may not be a lot of female students who aspire to be engineers at her school, Green says she is inspired by the female participants at competitions who also hope to become engineers.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is designed to get students interested in engineering and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers at an early age. Robots are built and controlled by students with help from volunteers.

The Denby team rolled through plenty of obstacles this year, but they kept going. The Denby 'Rollin Stones' placed 18 out of 39 schools with a record of five wins, four losses and one tie. Not enough to make it to the elimination rounds, but they did their best considering they had yet to complete the arm lift on their robot.

Still, the team competed in fierce fashion. Green operates the team's robot. Her team's resilience and will to fight shined through in the tournament. While some schools were unable to compete as they did not finish their robot builds in time, there were a few others (like the Rollin Stones) whose robots were just a base with no arm lift. Green had no choice but to focus on defending opposing alliances from scoring by blocking their paths. And she did just that, as evidenced by the team's winning record. Some opponents didn't score a point.

In the midst of all the struggles along the way, Green admits she was tempted to quit but didn't. "I had to learn to sacrifice because my team would see if I gave up," she says. "But I want to tell everybody that we can't give up. We're not quitters."

Sacrifice seems to be contagious. "This is our third year competing in FIRST Robotics," says Murleen Coakley, lead mentor for the Rollin Stones and 9th grade English teacher at Denby who specializes in student services. "I keep doing the competition because students want to."

Coakley leads the way in courage by spending vast amounts of time, energy and even money out of her own pocket to help her students. She also organizes fundraisers and asks other teachers to contribute.

This is Coakely, Green and Haywood's third year together in FIRST Robotics (fourth if you count Denby's involvement in the FIRST Lego League - an autonomous robot competition for students aged 9 to 14 - in which Coakely, Green and Haywood participated four years ago.)

Their history is an advantage, especially considering that the two captains, along with one other student, are the only returning members in the group of 14. Coakley says her captains have been trying to "pass the torch" in order to prepare their younger teammates for future competitions. Haywood adds that they had groups to "handle each facet of building our robot and the captains did more supervising so that other students could take over to get a feel for next year."

Unable to stay away from FIRST for too long, Green and Haywood plan to come back and mentor the Denby team for next year's competition and may also help mentor a FIRST Lego League team to inspire younger students.