In August of 2005 I received a call from Bev White of the Kauffman Foundation. She got my name through a colleague from SM West. Ms. White informed me that the Kauffman Foundation had grant money for schools to form robotics teams and could not generate any interest. When I learned that the grant money for the first year was $18,000 I immediately agreed to SM West forming a team. At the time I thought it would be a good project for my Physics 2-AP class.

Five years later I have come to appreciate the extent to which my original agreement has taken our team. Hours of thinking, planning, building, writing, and worrying about deadlines has resulted in life-long learning experiences for our student team members, our mentors, my co-sponsor, our dedicated parents, our sponsors, our school community, the Kansas City Metro area, and most of all myself. Little did I know that one little ‘yes’ would culminate in such a great endeavor.

“Go Vikings – Team 1777” Work hard… be confident… and complete another successful year.