05/05/2019
Coaches Thomas and Sharon here: This is bittersweet -- FTC Team 3595, Schrödinger’s Hat, is retiring.
Ten years ago, 3595 started with 5 kids in a basement in Alaska and went on to become one of the most successful teams in FIRST Tech Challenge history. Along the way, they attended all 5 Super-Regionals, qualified for Worlds 7 times, and won Inspire 8 times at Championship tournaments. At the World Championship, 3595 won the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award three times, the Promote Award twice, the Compass Award (David Patterson), the Judges’ Award (“The Rainbow Award”), and, in 2015, they won the World Championship Inspire Award. They have had two Dean’s List Finalists and one Dean’s List Winner. At Worlds they were on the Finalist Alliance in 2016 and captained the 3rd-seed alliance in 2017. FIRST hand-selected them to be FIRST Global Team USA for the inaugural year of FIRST Global. They have met with governors, senators, and members of Congress, been to the White House, competed in Australia, and have been involved directly with FIRST Headquarters on countless projects ranging from working with the Game Design Committee to sitting on FIRST’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Youth Advisory Committee. Every season they have increased their number of outreach events, culminating in an astonishing 166 events this season. Watching what these kids can accomplish has been an amazing and humbling experience.
The FIRST community as a whole has given us so much, and we are grateful to the volunteers, teams, sponsors, and FIRST staff who have made this journey possible. We hope that we have been able to give back in a meaningful way.
Annie, Eric, Jessica, Katelynne, Keith, Andrew, Colleen, Eli, Emily, Garrett, Justin, Katie, Lama, Leen, and Sunny (Jinxuan), it has been an honor and a privilege, and we could not be more proud of the lot of you.
Finally, we would like to sign off with the team’s Promote video from 2016:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UxxAmBQoXo
