Scholarship Essays for College Admissions

The FIRST Robotics Chesapeake Regional Competition was a true Cinderella story for our team. Enduring 6 consecutive losses tested our team’s camaraderie, heart, and determination, a test from which we emerged victorious and became the Chesapeake Regional Champions.

The Chesapeake Regional victory was the culmination of 6 weeks of intense work -brainstorming, designing, manufacturing, and testing of a robot capable of meeting the year’s challenge.

The morning of the competition we left the school bright and early yet full of excitement about what the day had to offer us. Once we reached our destination we got ready for a long day of inspections, practice rounds, and refinements. Everything went fairly well that day. We were able to pass all inspections: electrical, mechanical, size, and weight. Despite a few drivetrain, electrical, and mechanical problems, our robot performed well during the practice rounds. The practice rounds not only gave us a chance to test our robot but also allowed me to acclimate myself to driving the robot for the first time. With some driving experience I was eager to compete in the qualifying rounds that would start the next day.

My eagerness of the previous day changed to frustration when we encountered an endless string of problems. A few of those problems were our own and were resolved quickly but most were out of our control such as alliance partner’s penalties and their lack of point contribution. Although the excessive number of alliance partner’s problems did upset us, we understood that they too were also trying their hardest. No matter what the problem was or how many times we lost, I kept a positive attitude and continued to drive my best. However, by the end of the day most of us were dejected and disappointed that we had not won even one of the five matches that day.
On the last day of the competition I arrived with a fresh new outlook. No matter what happens at the competition all I need to do is to drive my best, have fun, and know that building a robot is really about learning and not just winning. There were two qualifying matches that day and we finally won the last one. I was very happy with the performance of our robot and my driving that morning. However, I was still disappointed that we not only ended the qualifying round with a 1 and 6 record but also that I could have presented my Science Fair project at the Regionals that day and quite possibly had won there. With elimination rounds starting soon our mentor wanted us to start packing up. All this time I was still clinging on to the hope that one of the top 10 seeded teams would notice our robot and my penalty-free driving and pick us as an alliance partner. Lucky for us the first and second seeded teams, who had devoted a lot of time to scouting out all the teams, did notice our robot’s outstanding performance and my penalty-free driving. Upon our acceptance of the alliance offer, we were ecstatic that we had another chance to prove our worth in the elimination rounds. Not only did we prove our worth but we also exceeded our expectations. During elimination rounds our alliance did not lose a single match and set a national high score. The feeling of being crowned the Chesapeake Regional Champions after losing 6 out of 7 qualifying matches was the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest during an unforgiving blizzard and ultimately reaching the top of the world.

Not only did I end the season with an immensely expanded knowledge of engineering but I also experienced first-hand the fruits of perseverance and teamwork, a lesson that I will apply to every endeavor I take on.