VEX Robotics Team Honored by School Board After World Championships
A robotics team that consisted of five Hendrick Hudson High School students was celebrated at the Board of Education meeting on May 8, 2024 after competing in the VEX Robotics World Championship last month in Dallas. The team — which includes Nick Lowy, Brody Marcus, Matthew Mason, Max Parker, and Braxton Shoults — qualified for the event after winning the Southern New York State Championship in March.
Although not currently sanctioned as a club by the school district, the team applied for and received a grant from the Hendrick Hudson Community Educational Foundation (HHCEF) and also received significant sponsorship from CertainTeed in Buchanan in support of their efforts.
Shoults spoke at the meeting on behalf of the team, which joined forces in August and has since competed at events in Boston, Ridgefield, Conn., Hershey, Pa., and Katonah before traveling to Dallas. He thanked those who have supported the team throughout the school year and highlighted its rapid growth.
“The experiences we have gained through the last seven or eight months have taught us so many different things about teamwork, collaboration, the engineering process, computer programming and more,” said Shoults, a sophomore. “It has allowed us to build on the things we are already learning in our classes, whether it’s physics, math or our Project Lead the Way Principles of Engineering class.”
HHCEF board members Beth Gruber and Michelle Piccolo-Hill joined the students and CertainTeed representatives at the meeting. HHCEF president Antoinette Pio and CertainTeed plant manager Paul Woolweaver, who also serves as a partner on Hendrick Hudson’s Project Lead the Way partnership team, have also expressed strong support of the team’s trip to Texas.
“I’d like to congratulate the team, the parents, and thank the school board for supporting this effort,” said CertainTeed production manager Troy Yurasits, who was joined at the meeting by engineers Akshay Nijampurkar and Santhosh Beeram. “Moving forward, we’d like to continue to work on this relationship and with the programs that are established here.”