FIRST Global encourages each nation on the planet to invest in STEM education for their boys and girls and select a single team to represent them in a competition where collaboration, culture, respect, friendship and robotics prevail. Since 2017, we have started the creation of robotics seedbeds in different educational institutions, as a result of programs such as the regional robotics tournament in Palmira, supported by the Ministry of Education.

A team is created that promotes the learning of skills in computational thinking, programming and robotics with the aim of mainstreaming activities and streamlining the teaching-learning process.

Students

Laura: Hello, I am Laura Sofía Ramírez Manzano, I am 14 years old, I am in 10th grade at Jorge Eliecer Gaitán High School, I live in Colombia Palmira Valle del Cauca. I proudly participate as a student in the FIRST Global tournament, thanks to my mentors and my teachers I have learned a lot about technology through challenges and work with my classmates. The career I want to study in mechatronics engineering since I have fallen in love with everything I have learned in these processes and it would be a great help because I would have many advances for what I want to learn later on. FIRST Global has made me understand that you don’t have to work alone because you have a team that supports you, you work together and there is fun, meeting people from other countries is a lot of fun and it is nice to learn, to know, to hear all about them. It’s nice to be part of a team and participate in FIRST Global, I plan to continue supporting and mentoring in the future.

Simón: Hello, my name is Simón Barrera Ruíz, I am 15 years old, and I am part of Team Colombia. Currently, I am in 11th grade at San José Campestre Bilingual School. I am passionate about everything that has to do with chemistry, mathematics, physics, robotics, and technology in general. Since I was a child I have always focused a lot on the areas that STEM focuses on. I’ve always liked to understand how and why things work around me, so participating in a project like this makes me enormously happy. I hope this will allow me to keep learning and keep opening more and more doors to work in what I like, so little by little I hope to fulfill my dream of becoming a great industrial designer and industrial engineer. I also hope to continue being part of the team, for now as a student, and when I have the opportunity, to be able to do so as a mentor, thus being able to inspire and guide each of the children who are interested in approaching STEM.

Sebastián: My name is Jhoan Sebastián Rivera and I’m 17 years old, I was born May 2005 in the city of Cali but soon after that, I moved to Palmira, where I’ve grown up. I study at the San José bilingual school and when I was in eighth grade I joined the school robótics team, in this team, we participated in some local competitions like the 2018 Idibot tournament and attended some local technology expositions. The reason I joined the robótics team was mainly because of my enjoyment of video games, math, and technology. Since then, I have been trying to improve my programming skills.

Mariana: Hello, my name is Mariana Zapata Florez, I am currently 14 years old and I live in Palmira Valle Colombia. At the moment I am in tenth grade. I am part of Team Colombia, which I am very proud of. Being in the team has been a very nice experience because the team has been very good to me and it is fun to work as a team, thinking about how we can make a robot achieve what is required. I am currently in charge of the design part of the robot which has made me want to study graphic design in the future. I hope to continue here because I have enjoyed being part of this great team and I hope to be a great mentor like the others in the future.

Ana: My name is Ana Sofía Muñoz, I am 16 years old and I just finished high school. I came to FIRST Global through school. This year I have been supporting the team for 4 years and I am currently part of the official team. In addition, robotics and FIRST Global have left me with many friendships and rewarding experiences. This has been a wonderful process, I learned many things both personally and academically. Robotics led me to choose a career in STEM which is Biochemical Engineering. I am very excited and excited to be a part of FIRST Global and look forward to continuing to support it.

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