Thursday, April 17, 2008

I don't feel like a tomboy at all

The WISE-sponsored Wired Cats are getting press at the FIRST national Championships! Check out this Atlanta Journal-Consititution article on the FIRST national championships, entitled "Girls embrace inner 'nerd' with robotics" where our favorite robotics team from the Westminster Schools figures prominently!




"Grace Williams (right) and Meredith Kolff of Westminster High School chat with members of other teams during the competition. 'There's a sense of community' among competitors, Williams said."




"...In the Milton team's first couple of years, the only females who participated were girlfriends of team members. Crowe, a computer science and math teacher, jokes that she had to "harass" girls into joining.  That hasn't been a problem at Westminster, a team in its first year that was started by two female students, Meredith Kolff and Grace Williams, and whose sponsor is Valerie Bennett, a physics teacher with a doctorate in mechanical engineering.  Kolff came to last year's competition with Bennett and was 'blown away and decided we needed a team, [and] came back and recruited Grace.' Kolff said she has learned plenty about 'electronic stuff and drive trains.'  Williams is helping to start teams at other schools, including at Westminster's sister school in Kenya.
'I don't feel like a tomboy at all,' Williams said. "FIRST is something I can do being me."