Jason's Trip to the Robotics World Champs in the US

Hi, my name is Jason Collingwood, I am currently 17 years old and I am the builder, driver and programmer for the VEX Robotics Team 2918A from Glenfield College, there is one other member of the team with me, Mark Golds, but sadly he is unable to attend the world championships with me.

Recently at the 2015 New Zealand National Championships I was able to double qualify to attend the VEX Robotics World Championships located in Louisville, Kentucky. I was able to qualify by placing 14th in the world for Programming Skills, this requires the robot to be fully autonomous operated for one minute and to try and score as many points as possible in the time given. The second way I was able to qualify was that our school won the National Excellence Award, this is the top award that can be awarded at the competition. The excellence award looks at different criteria to see what school is to be awarded it, some of these being teamwork, two online challenges, competing in both robot skills and programming skills, seeding high in qualification rounds, mentoring of other schools and gracious professionalism throughout the competition. As my team is the only one eligible in the school for this award the qualification spot was unable to be passed onto another school.

How I joined robotics:

I am currently a year 13 student, but I joined the robotics team when I was in year 9. Back in year 9 my best friend, Stedtson, got told near the beginning of the year he will probably have to leave Glenfield College to move up to Whangaparoa during the school year, both me and Stedtson had wanted to join the robotics team, but seeing as he would be leaving soon we decided not to, until his dad finally agreed to let him finish the year at Glenfield College. As Stedtson was now able to stay for the year we both went and joined the Robotics group. Ever since I have been competing all over New Zealand.

What robotics has done for me:

When I first joined the robotics team I was a shy 'nerdy' kid with very little friends. I now have met so many great people from all around Auckland, New Zealand and the world, and I have also grown to be a more confident speaker. In 2013 I was chosen along with 2 other students to travel to China to talk to students in schools about robotics and the New Zealand education system, where I was able to speak with confidence, something I would never have been able to do if it wasn't for being a part of the robotics team.

I leave on the 8th to travel to this years World Championships, witch will be the second ever that I have attended. This year the teacher in charge has chosen to have a stop over in Hawaii on the way to the Worlds to let the team relax for the busy days that will soon follow. Next year I will be attending university, where I plan on studying engineering, that can hopefully include techniques I have learnt though robotics.

The robot:

The goal for the VEX robots this season is to start within a 18" cube at the start if the match, then expand to be able to build and score a 'skyrise' that is 5 foot tall. Then the robot has to be able to score cubes onto this post, and other posts around the field.

The World Championships:

I will be leaving New Zealand on the 8th of April and arriving back on the 23rd of April. The costs I am raising for this trip include: travel and accommodation, travel insurance, money for activities, food and spending. The team have currently had a couple of thousand already donated towards the costs of the trip, which has helped us tremendously, but each team member still haven't been able to cover the costs for some of the accommodation, activities, food money and spending money. Please could you support me on this amazing journey by making a donation, every donation counts.

I have already been able to raise $2000 offline, so i Only need another $2000 through Givealittle