Each year, the Allendale Robotics' high school team has the honor of nominating two of their students for the Dean's List award and one of their mentors for the Woodie Flowers award.
The Dean's List award is designed to recognize students on an FRC team that go above and beyond the expectitions of being on the team. These students are nominated by the team of mentors that coaches the TriSonics. This year, the mentors nominated Pierce, who is a junior at Allendale High School, and Noah, a sophomore from Coopersville High School.
Pierce has been a member of Allendale Robotics for several years, he started in FLL and has progressed through to the FRC program. When he joined the TriSonics his freshman year, he saw a gap in our team and quickly aimed to fill it. Our team has always valued safety, but Pierce made safety his own - building an entire "Safety Squad" and making sure the entire team was educated in the proper techniques and safety procedures to keep everyone from getting hurt.
Noah began shadowing the TriSonics in 8th grade, and as soon as he got into high school became a member of Allendale Robotics. When he joined his freshman year, the awards and outreach group saw his potential and reached out to him. Noah agreed to help with awards and outreach and has rapidly made the subteams his own project. In 2015, he was the star of the team's Chairman Video (Watch his debut performance here), and he was also a member on the Chairman's presentation team.
On the flip side of things, the Woodie Flowers award is designed to highlight a mentor that gives more to their team than anyone would ever expect. This mentor is nominated by the students of the team, and is recognized at a competition that the team attends. This year, the students nominated the head programming mentor, David Austin. The students have a tough time picking a mentor each year since every mentor on the team is such a critical part to the process. Dave has always gone above and beyond - staying late and arriving early to help with getting the robot done in time. Also, the students know that Dave is available to help with whatever they need. As a college professor, Dave has helped several of our students solidify plans for pursuing higher education.
These 3 members of the TriSonics are a small example of why the Allendale Robotics program provides such an excellence experience for students of all ages.