We are team #8280, K9 Robotics at the School at Marygrove (TSM), supported by the Motor City Alliance (MCA). Located on the College of Marygrove campus in Detroit, Michigan, TSM serves a majority Black population of students who apply to the school for its Design Thinking, Social Justice, and STEM foci. TSM is a new school and our young robotics program is still working to source the materials, equipment, and travel funding needed to reach our season’s goal: the 2024 FIRST Robotics World Championships in Houston, Texas. Of course, our vision is broader than our individual team's success: we want to bring STEM learning and a passion for innovation to our broader Detroit community. Our group of students is excited to represent Detroit excellence at the highest stage-- hence our 2024 mantra: Let's Mess With Texas. (we think we're clever) FIRST is the premier international Robotics competition. Teams like our have six weeks to ideate, build, test, and iterate a semi-autonomous machine. Here at TSM we are building something special. We have a group of 16 dedicated and curious young people, natural leaders who challenge themselves and us coaches in pursuit of their goals. We have a coaching team with proven excellence in FIRST competitions, having just represented Detroit at the FIRST middle school world championship tournament, winning Coach of the Year runner up, despite the odds. And the odds are indeed long. Team K9.0 faces budgetary challenges that other teams-- wealthy teams from the suburbs outside Detroit-- don't face. The correlation between a team's socioeconomics status and their success in FIRST robotics is exactly what you'd imagine. We’re hoping Avantor can help to bring equity to FIRST competitions in Detroit. Put simply, Robotics is an expensive sport. FIRST asks more than $6,000 for team and individual registrations--regional and state tournaments cost even more. Altogether, our budget for the 2024 season is just over $40,000. We have the skills and pedigree to take our team toState, Regional, and world championships-- all of which require thousands of dollars in registration fees. Currently, we receive $12,000 from Detroit Public schools to cover event registrations. The rest falls to our two mentors. We aim to engage in fundraising efforts over the summer, but we have no other sources of guaranteed funding. At other robotics programs in the state--programs against whom we compete weekly-- teams of up to 50 students pay $350 each to participate. This cost would have been prohibitive for our students. Our coaches have donated personal time and funds to acquire 3d printers, hardware and tools from bolts to bandsaws. At other programs, stay-at-home parents commit to providing meals for their whole teams a few times per season, or volunteer to rent out trailers to drive bots and equipment to weekend tournaments; these are privileges our demographic of students do not enjoy. For now, all of those costs are coming out of our coaches’ pockets. We need help to compete against these suburban and private schools. One thing I love about our students is their commitment to expanding their influence in the community. Students on Team K9.0 are already volunteering to start elementary school robotics programs at several schools and mentoring several extant middle-school teams. Currently all our plans for these activities (Robotics kits, transit, food) are paid by our scant mentors. Your donation provides an immediate solution to this problem and allows us to equitably engage in FIRST Robotics competition next year. With financial support from you, team K9.0 will be able to continue to expand the opportunities it provides for Black students who otherwise would not have exposure for these kinds of hands-on, agency-building activities. Sincerely, Parker Miles and Leon Pryor, mentors Team #8280, K9.0 Robotics at The School at Marygrove Motor City Alliance, 501c
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