SDA Guardians off to robotics nationals

Three of the five-members of the Saipan Seventh-day Adventist School Guardians and coach Melanie Stroud left yesterday to compete in the North American Division Invitational of the Adventist Robotics League. The tournament is set on May 1 in Sacramento, California.

The North American nationals is by invitation only with the Guardians earning one of the three spots after a surprising but impressive performance in the 10th Annual North Pacific Regional Robotics Challenge in Walla Walla, Washington early this month.

Team SDA’s robot design and project presentation—on their research of turning waste to energy—earned first place in each categories. They then placed second in Core Values/Teamwork to finish second overall out of 15 other SDA schools that competed.

Those awards were enough to earn the team the invitation to the Invitational tournament for the North Pacific Region.

Rannon Palacios, Sion Park, and Miles Timmons—who represented the CNMI in the regional tournament held at the Walla Walla Valley Academy College Place—are the members joining Stroud. Cory Lee and Harvey Zhang are also part of Team Guardians.

Stroud said they managed to raise the airplane fare with the help of several sponsors that answered their call when they were still unsure of going to the tournament. She added that they remain confident that other donors would follow even though they are already in Sacramento.

“We had enough sponsors for our airfare and are stepping out in faith for the other expenses. We could still use some more sponsors if anyone would like to help,” said Stroud, who previously helped another Adventist-run school in Alaska win the Adventist Robotics League Nationals.

They bought the tickets last week after getting enough pledges to book the flight for April 28, Thursday, giving them enough time to arrive for the competition. They left at 9:50pm last night with the promise of representing the CNMI to the best of their abilities.

“We kind of stepped out in faith because we don’t have the full amount we need for the entire trip. Now we just need the remaining funds to pay for our car, food, etc.,” Stroud said.

She added the North American Invitational will be similar to the regional tournament but is expected to be a bit longer as more teams will be joining. “The competition should be finishing up around 10am, Monday morning Saipan time.”

The ARL and Walla Walla University’s Edward F. Cross School of Engineering sponsors the event in cooperation with the First Lego League and the Junior FLL.

The SDA Dental Clinic, Coconut Scanning, PRO Therapy LLC, the Law Office of F. Matthew Smith, and Pacific Rim International helped the Guardians’ trip to Sacramento.