‘We Showed Them What It Meant to Be Jamaican’

The success of the Jamaica College (JC) robotics team in the recent FIRST Tech Robotics Championship, is being hailed as a testament of the country’s ‘little but we tallawah’ mantra.

The international contest, held in Houston, Texas in April, brought together 192 student robotics teams from around the world who put their innovation, teamwork, and robotics skills to the test under the guidance of coaches and mentors.

Despite various challenges and setbacks during the competition, including resource constraints, the 12-member JC team showed their mettle, creating history by becoming the first team from Jamaica and the wider Caribbean to receive the MOTIVATE award.

The MOTIVATE award is presented to the team that best reflects a commitment to inspiring others and boosting the awareness of robotics within their communities.

One student received a badge for inspiring a judge while the entire team was exposed to scholarship and sponsorship opportunities to further advance their careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) fields.
JC won the FIRST Tech Challenge Jamaica Championships in Kingston, which qualified the team to compete in the international competition.

Team captain, Zachery Ranglin, told JIS News that although other teams had better material “we showed them what it meant to be Jamaican and what it meant to be a young man coming from JC”.

“I was truly thankful for the experience,” he said.

Ojae James, who is the robotics designer for the team, said the competition exposed him to like-minded people in the STEAM sector.

He said that the experience gained will help prepare future teams from JC to achieve greater success in the international competition.

“There is no space in the world for there to be any form of distance between countries when it comes to STEAM. So, I believe that us going and getting that experience is key in leading our lower school, which will be succeeding us, to actually come back even better and win the TECH championships,” Ojae told JIS News.

JC also won two of 11 qualifying matches during their judging room interview, where the team presented their engineering and outreach books while answering judges’ questions at their booth.

Technical coach, Mickael Phillips, who assisted the boys to prepare for a 10-minute interview with judges, said it took a month between the regional and world championships to teach them how to be emotive and receptive to what would be asked.

“In those 10 minutes, they talked about how they assisted and started other school robotics programmes, how they really brought robotics to not only corporate Jamaica but to school-based programmes around them as well as the less fortunate,” he told JIS News.

On his part, Manager of the team, Jason Brown, said he is proud of the achievement of the youngsters. “What we would have wanted the young men to be, they are becoming, and they are honing their greatness,” he said.
He told JIS News that the team welcomes support from persons and organisations.

“We’ve seen the potential that Jamaica has but we cannot do this by ourselves. Whatever it is that you can do, to support, to engage, to build capacity here at JC, and in general, please give consideration to coming on board to making this happen,” he urged.

Meanwhile, State Minister in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Alando Terrelonge, who visited JC’s Old Hope Road campus to congratulate the boys, said the achievement of the boys shows what is possible with hard work and dedication.

“What JC has done with the very limited resources that they have is being able to build their robots, execute their programmes, execute their designs, and emerge victorious.

“It’s a strong signal to other young men that an educated mind is the greatest weapon they can wield,” he said, noting that it also “sends a strong signal to never give up on our young men”.

“We must never give up on our youth because not only are they the future, but they are also the present, and all they require of us is to support them, to believe in them and to provide opportunities for them,” he added.

FIRST Tech Challenge requires students grades seven to 12 to design, build, programme and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.

Consistent with the Government’s efforts to develop STEAM fields and critical-thinking skills in youths, the competition allows students to practise engineering principles and innovation while working as a team.

Current sponsors of the team include the National Baking Company Foundation, National Commercial Bank (NCB), Jamaica College Old Boy’s Association and the GORE Foundation.