Eriana

"Our team — it really is like our own little family."

By Students of NYC

March 1^st, 2024

"It was during midterms. We were in the room all quiet taking our tests, and I could hear these robotics kids across the hall. Their voices were so loud, and it just sounded like they were having so much fun. So for my senior year, I signed up for the general robotics class. When I got my schedule, I saw it had me staying late on Wednesdays to go to the STEM center all the way on Roosevelt Island. Turns out Ms. Hendrix had put me in the class that was going to be a part of a brand new robotics team. I was not trying to do that. I work at the Children’s Aid Society every day after school. I’m going to Delhi next year to study to become a vet tech, and I am saving up to pay for it. I told Ms. Hendrix, I can be in the class, but I won't stay late. By the time I got there Monday, the class was gone from my schedule. Ms. Hendrix doesn’t play around with commitment. That's the moment I realized, no, I actually really want to do this — this is important to me. So I spoke to my boss, and they were supportive. I asked Ms. Hendrix to please take me back into the class. And of course, she did.

At the beginning, I didn't know where I fit in or what I wanted to do. When Ms. Hendrix asked us what roles we wanted, at first I thought I’d just do design. But once we started to build the robot, I realized how much I have always loved building things. At my house, when there's something to be built, I'm the one to do it. Dressers, beds, whatever it is — I just built my mom her TV stand last week. When it came to the robots, and the screws and the wheels, I realized I like doing the same. Taking it apart, putting it back together again. I wasn’t just designing. I was building. So I told Ms. Hendrix ... I want to be an engineer.

Everybody on our team has their own thing. Deven — he is a picky eater, and he loves his chicken. We know when we order food we have to get him chicken and nothing else. And Tanveer — he’s super dedicated. He’s only a sophomore, so he’s the future of this team. He stays at the STEM center until eight o'clock at night working on the robot; once he was there until 12 a.m. and got the midnight badge. And Gio is our captain. He’s always calling us ‘la familia’ … sometimes, he’ll just stand up and yell it out of nowhere and make everybody laugh. Our team — it’s like our own little family. And Ms. Hendrix, she’s like the mom. She always makes sure all of us are good. During the First Tech Challenge competitions, she goes out of her way and makes sure we have everything we need. She’ll order us food, make sure we have water bottles, snacks, candies. Everything. Once, she made us personalized M&Ms as a surprise.

I never pictured myself on a robotics team. I don't do extracurriculars like that. I think it was when we first started building our chassis — which is the bottom part of our robot, the wheels and everything. We were supposed to leave the STEM center at four o'clock, but we weren't finished building. I said, you know what, I'll just stay. Give me the wheels, let me build them. When you’re so into something like that, time just goes by. Ms. Hendrix was like, look at you, you didn’t even think you’d come, and now here you are staying late. I was like, wow, you're right. Now I'm here."