January is Mentor Appreciation Month!

We are almost halfway through the FRC build season, and we would not be making any progress at all without the enormous dedication of our team of mentors. Because we are a rookie team, our roster is relatively small, and not all team members can be here everyday. Many of our mentors are, though! Tondra Holeman and Neil Palachuk of Boeing have been with us since our robotics team was formed in September. They worked long hours to help us be competitive in our FTC competitions. During FTC we were joined by Francis Moreno, also a Boeing employee.

Now that we are in the FRC season, we have added Kyle Komo, Tom Newton and Michele Simon of Boeing, and Jesse Jarrell of Western Engineers. Our mentors are here as much or more than the students. Many give up time on the weekends to shop for needed materials and research information we need to know while we build the robots. They have an excellent rapport with the students, helping them to learn CAD, programming and manufacturing skills. We are very grateful for their support and we appreciate them all year long, not just in January!

Our fearless leaders, from left: Kyle Komo, Michelle Simon, Tom Newton, Neil Palachuk, Tondra Holeman, Jesse Jarrell.