FTC Club members (front, l-r) Chase Bergeron, Matt Hilbert and Nate McCarthy; and (back, l-r) Nick Kelly and Robotics Club Advisor Rich Walker display the team’s robot. Not pictured: Gerald Menzie and Zach Swapceinski. Byron-Bergen Jr./Sr. High School’s FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC®) club, a high school robotics competition, competed against 26 other teams and then in the semi-finals at the FIRST® Tech Challenge Robotics Competition at Clarkson University, November 30.
The “Bee Awesome” team, along with technology teacher Rich Walker, finished with a 2-2-1 record in the qualifying rounds.
According to Walker, the team enjoyed the experience and came back to Byron-Bergen with a better understanding of problem-solving skills, networking techniques, and team work.
The team also thanks Liberty Pumps, which not only helped the team financially, but also provided mentor and manufacturing engineer David Clark to support the team.
The team plans on participating in the annual “Tech Wars” at Genesee Community College, and is currently planning for a local Robotics competition in the spring, according to Walker.
Live concert kicks off Byron-Bergen’s new anti-bullying program
Jared Campbell talks to students during his live concert at Byron-Bergen Jr./Sr. High School, November 30.Students at Byron-Bergen Jr./Sr. High School spent Friday, November 30 enjoying the musical talents of Jared Campbell of The Blue Project in his interactive live concert to kick off the district’s newly launched Olweus anti-bullying program.
Campbell, an award winning singer/songwriter from upstate New York, speaks and performs at hundreds of schools and conferences. His focus is allowing his music to impact the lives of his listeners by experiencing joy, finding comfort through pain, and looking past obstacles toward living a better life.
Campbell’s message involved how the power of words can influence students.
“When you use words in the wrong way, it’s like weapons,” he said to students.
To conquer hurtful words, Campbell told students that even though there are clouds in the sky, there is a blue sky behind those clouds.
Byron-Bergen chose the theme “Rise Above” for their kick-off event to coincide with Campbell’s message of rising above obstacles to find the blue, or motivation. The theme “Rise Above” is the focus of Campbell’s song “Catch a Glimpse of Blue.”
“This [message] is about rising above the things that weight us down,” he said before performing his song “Catch of Glimpse of Blue.”
Also part of his message, Campbell talked to students about what he termed a “white line,” which is a person or persons who are always there for you. “I want you to think about your white line,” he tells students as he performed his song “Beyond the Rain.”
“I want you to think about how you can be that white line for someone – someone at your school,” he continues. “This is about taking down the judgements we have about someone.”
The event is important, according to Byron-Bergen Sr. High School Guidance Counselor Lindsay Kramer, because “we are a small community here and we need to support each and every person; no one is left out and no one is picked on.”
Other than bringing awareness and excitement for the new Olweus program, Byron-Bergen Assistant Principal for Regents Reform and School Improvement Jen Doyle asked students to agree to take action.
“We are agreeing to be friends, good citizens, and good bystanders,” she said.
