For us, the build up has been so long
and I think it was a little bit surreal when we were on the plane.
We understood where we were going
but I don't think it actually hit us until we drove up to the building
and saw all the banners. I was speechless
I just looked around, and the first thing I thought was "wow."
You know I'm here. This is everything I dreamed it would be.
It was amazing, like we feel like it's a different world.
It's not like Tunisia, it's not like the other competitions.
Being here at The VEX Robotics World Championship, it gives me chills.
 
Across the year, teams are competing in local, State, Regional and National tournaments,
in an attempt to qualify for the World Championship.
This is only a few day event,
but for these students it is the most important few days of their young lives.
It’s like traveling the world without actually going there. 
I actually started pinching myself.
Some of the most memorable teams that I’ve met 
come from the attire they wear or like how they talk to us.
I think the culture here is like very accepting and diverse. 
We had an alliance with China and the students there can’t really speak English
but we used this thing called a strategy board to show tactics.
It’s really a lot about collaboration and communication. 
VEX is robotics problem solving where you bring your skill set together
as a team to cooperate and still compete.
You can learn loads of different skills from teamwork to leadership.
It’s less about the coding… 
it’s more like oh there’s a problem in front of me wouldn’t it be fun to just fix it.
When you’re down in the pits and you’re driving, most the time he’s really stressed out 
so I always try to calm him down. We’ll be in the middle of a match
and I’ll just say take a deep breath
What we are trying to bring out in our students is the ability to be job ready. 
Whether it’s VEX or anything else the work is the same. 
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
For new students I just say give it a go. I was a bit anxious to get involved not knowing, 
you know, exactly what I was doing. Its a learning process.
You never know like what you’re gonna be good at until you try it.
Now most of my students are saying I wanna become a mechanical engineer, 
an electrical engineer, a biomedical engineer and it just makes my heart happy. 
Like they OWN this, this is meaningful and relevant to them at this point in their lives. 
I see myself at 80 years old, still coaching robotics. 
