Career Academy South Bend Robotics Team heads to FIRST Robotics Championships

SOUTH BEND — Career Academy South Bend's robotics team secured awards at the FIRST Indiana State Championships, held April 5-7 in Lafayette.

The team qualified to participate in FIRST Championships in Houston, Texas.

Career Academy South Bend, authorized by Education One at Trine University, has developed a strong FIRST Robotics program since the team’s inception in 2015. Over the past 10 years, 5484 Team Wolf Pack has competed internationally through FIRST competitions and continues to break barriers with its achievements.

The team has grown from having three mentors and 10 students to six mentors and 37 students. Every year since they have been an established team, students have attended the Indiana State Championship.

This year has been their most successful. At the FIRST Indiana State Championships, 5484 Team Wolf Pack became the only team in history to win both the FIRST Impact Award and the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.

The FIRST Impact Award, formerly the Chairman’s Award, is the most distinguished award at FIRST, honoring the team that best embodies the mission of FIRST and represents the caliber of teams the program hosts. This award was created to keep the focus on the FIRST Robotics Competition’s goal to inspire respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to be leaders in STEM. The team previously won this award at the FIRST Indiana Mishawaka Competition this season.

The Wolf Pack team shared in their FIRST Impact Award essay, “The Ripple Effect is defined as the continuing and spreading results of an event or action. The Wolf Pack feels that this metaphor describes the way in which we plan to ‘Change Lives, Build Robots’. Looking back upon 10 seasons, we understand that our lives have changed, and with them, our priorities. By implementing off-season seminars, developing FIRST teams, creating makerspaces, and more, we are actively attempting to contribute to the growth of our younger generation and their futures. Changing the lives of others to build a better future.”

The Woodie Flowers Finalist Award was given to Dave Ebersol, robotics coach, who is in his 10th season with Career Academy’s robotics team. For this award, the team members took the time to describe how Ebersol has been impactful as a mentor, which led to him being awarded as a finalist.

Team Wolf Pack will compete in the FIRST Championships from April 17-20. In 2023, the Championship had 974 teams that represented 59 countries in attendance with over 46,000 attendees.

To learn more about Career Academy Network of Public Schools, visit https://casbschools.com/