October, 2022
By Janet Castillo, News Reporter
The Robotics team is both one of the most visible student organizations at KAC, and one of the most interesting! The robotics program here at KAC is made up of five teams – led by Mr. Ramirez, Ms. Burke, Mr. Martin, Mr. Jensen, and Ms. Lopez – with students who tried out to be part of our sister teams: Steminists, Hestia, Archytas, Dinobyte, and Deus Ex Maquina. It is where students get together and learn things you normally wouldn’t learn on a daily basis, such as teamwork, leadership, social skills, and STEM (fields of science, technology, engineering, and math).
To answer my questions, I interviewed two members of the Robotics program – specifically, the senior Archytas team: Daniela Belmontes and Rebeca Rosales who, along with Kenia Cardenas, Ana Sanchez, and Hector Martinez, are founding team members. This is their second year competing in FTC. While at first I had a basic understanding of what robotics is, after interviewing these girls, I had a much better understanding.
First, I asked them what robotics meant to them, and they told me: “It means bonding in an opportunity to give women a path in STEM since there aren’t many women in it.”
“Robotics is a program where we expand our knowledge in all of the areas of STEM, and we also get to get creative with our robots,” they continued.
I also asked them why they chose to join Robotics, to which Rosales responded: “I chose to join robotics because I wanted to create new friendships and be part of a team.” And Belmontes said: “I chose to join Robotics because it was a great way to expand my opportunities. I get to learn a lot of new things and truly expand my horizons.”
And last but not least, I had heard that they were going on a trip for four days to Formula 1, which Rebeca talked to me about. She said, “We just went on a trip that was given to us by One Community, and we went to Formula One and met [Formula One driver] Lewis Hamilton. This was made to open the opportunity of careers in Motorsport and in STEM and encourage more young black and brown students to join Motorsport racing, specifically women.”
And Daniela told me about another trip they might have at the end of the year, saying, “We are planning to go to South Korea, but it’s still in the process of approval. And the reasoning behind us going is to learn more about robotics! Asia, in particular, is very expanded in everything that has to do with tech, and we are using that as an experience to learn more about the technical part of robotics.”
I loved how they answered honestly and talked about getting women to learn more about STEM and how it’s a great opportunity to be a part of robotics. Both Belmontes and Rosales seem to take things very seriously and encourage others to do the same. KAC’s robotics seems like a very cool program, and if ever the opportunity, y’all should check it out!
The Cardinal Post 