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Oak Harbor High School robotics team hailed for outreach after world championship run
Summary
Oak Harbor High School’s robotics club updated the City Council on competition results and local outreach projects, including ADA-compliant garden beds, wheelchair ramps and menstrual-equity efforts.
Oak Harbor High School’s robotics club described its recent trip to the world championships and highlighted several community outreach projects at the May 6 Oak Harbor City Council meeting.
The students and their advisor told the council the team advanced at the world championships after moving up six places through the event and that the robot performed as designed. The presentation emphasized the program’s work across age groups and local service projects.
“[W]e went to the world championships…we moved up 6 places,” said Idozi Idoga, the team advisor. Student Thorn explained the pace and technical challenge of the season: teams have six weeks to design and build a robot for an annually changing game. “There’s a new challenge…we have 6 weeks to design and build a robot,” Thorn said.
Junior student Alina Locklear described the club’s feeder programs and inclusion efforts, saying the program runs from elementary FIRST LEGO League teams up through high school and includes “unified robotics programs” to create neurodiverse teams. Locklear said the club also maintains a menstrual-equity initiative, placing “boxes of feminine hygiene products in 90% of our classrooms at the high school.”
Sophomore Vincent Zarate summarized service projects the team has completed: more than 13 wheelchair ramps constructed (eight in the past three years), graduation ramps used by about 400 students, and ADA-compliant garden beds assembled for elementary schools including Olympic View Elementary (OVE). Zarate also said the team is pursuing curriculum partnerships to add electric vehicle topics to the high school’s CTE auto classes.
Council members praised the club’s outreach to younger students and cross-age mentoring. “There’s nothing like that peer relationship,” a council member said, adding that the program’s cross-school outreach “has a ripple effect on so many lives.”
The students encouraged the council to continue supporting STEM programs; no formal action was required or taken by the council on this presentation.
