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5. Golden Jags are Girl Powered

We are team 5081F, The Golden Jags, from PPCMS West Robotics and here is our Girl Powered Story.   Girl Powered is an important phrase that is essential to our team. This phrase has guided us to be the team we are today. Without this mentality, our team wouldn’t have grown to become the strong and independent team we are today. Together as the Golden Jags, we have worked to find the best members that compliment the dynamics of our team and help our team grow. There are times when teams are formed and certain members do not have the same goal as the others on the team. One girl was only part of the team to wear the club shirt and hang out with her friends. This was one of the biggest obstacles we faced this competition season. We decided it was best to tell her that she needed to help us contribute in whatever way possible in order to help us succeed. She decided that she didn’t want to pull her weight and sadly left us after our first competition. Since then, we have found teammates who are hardworking and care about robotics. Having to find new teammates was a struggle, but now our team is even stronger than before and hungry to learn in order to be the best we can  be. In order to find the perfect dynamic, our members have tried various roles. For example, Molly started as a builder but now has found her strength in designing (notebook) and driving, Ria and Ann started in building and has found a love for coding and research.. Overall we have all have strengths but we all contribute to the team in all the work that we complete. Throughout this experience, we have learned to step out of our comfort zone and expand our knowledge. Our teacher made it clear the significance of forming an all girls team in a discipline generally ruled by males. We had to understand the Girl Powered was not just a phrase. We can do anything boys can do. We just had to believe it. At our first competition, we were told by competitors that we wouldn’t be able to score above ten points because we were girls. Sadly, we didn’t. We scored 6 points. But we didn’t score six points because we are girls. We understood that! While others laughed and said I told you so, we kept our heads high and went back to the drawing board.  Competitive robotics should be a challenge that everyone can participate in equally. Girl Powered has empowered us to achieve much more than what others expect of us. We went from scoring six points to now scoring 192 points and ranked 7th in the state of Florida! Our biggest role model in STEM is Debbie Sterling. Debbie Sterling is the CEO and creator of Goldieblox. She is the leading voice in the movement to inspire girls to be interested in engineering and technology. As younger children, we would play with these “engineering toys”, which challenged our brain to create multiple solutions to minor challenges that motivate children to engage their brain in a fun and active way. This toy has inspired our love for robotics, and programming. Debbie Sterling has been an example in our lives since a child and her influence in the field of STEM has helped us to create a team where all ideas are valued and included. Her involvement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math is helping create more women involvement in the engineering field. Only 14% of people in the engineering field are women. Sterling believes that her contribution could help raise that number. We hope we can excite girls and show that we can do anything boys can do.   Ever since our team began we, have had a goal that keeps us moving forward. “We always keep our heads up high, no matter the challenge, in hopes that we may inspire others”. As our interest in robotics was sparked by other role models, we perform to encourage other girls that we are Girl Powered and that means that nobody can limit us because of our gender. Girl Powered has encouraged us and we hope that we can be a light of encouragement to other young girls. In hope that one day that 14% of women in the engineering field can change to be an even  50%. Girl Powered to us is a representation of equality for all in the competitive robotics and engineering field.   Title: Golden Jags are Girl Powered Team:  5081F- The Golden Jags Credits: Heather Clemmensen Molly Masson Ria Rajpal Sophia Orellana Valentina Rogers Ann Titus Emilee Zhou