15 Dec FIRST Global Alumni Becoming Mentors – Keeghan

Seeds planted by FIRST Global in the hearts of students are blossoming into leaders who are entrepreneurs, advocates, and mentors just six years after the inaugural FIRST Global Challenge. Here is the story of Keeghan.

Keeghan from Saint Lucia

Keeghan (center) with his teammate turned co-founder Shergaun (left) in 2017.

“I think it inspired what I became today—a mechanical engineer in my studies—and founding a company… I think FIRST Global really gave me my first opportunity.”

Keeghan Patrick was a student participant in the 2017 FIRST Global Challenge in Washington, D.C, representing his country of Saint Lucia. Just 18 years old at the time, he has now graduated college, started his master’s program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and founded Orbtronics – a technology company with the mission to accelerate technology in the Caribbean through building software to facilitate STEM education programs.

I noticed the large technology divide between ourselves and the developed world, so me and my co-founder left with the feeling that we need to do something different in our country. We said, why don’t we have a STEM education program and teach students what we learned at FIRST Global?”

Today, his company employs 10 people who all work to do just that.

Orbtronics Junior, a month-long program for kids ages 11-16 that includes hands-on challenges to equip them in either robotics or python.

This year, Keeghan and his co-founder re-founded FIRST Global Team Saint Lucia, which had been inactive since the 2018 Challenge. In doing so, Keeghan has come full circle from a student participant to a team mentor, passing on the same life-changing opportunity he had to the next generation of Saint Lucian youth.

“When you participate in FIRST Global you come out with a really good story,” he said. “It gave me a lot of recognition when applying to scholarships, especially being from a developing nation. It showed us that even though we are from a small island, we could have a global impact. We wanted to give the students that same opportunity.”

And the impact is already paying off. This year, one of Keeghan’s mentees, Nehal, was a recipient of the Temasek Women in STEM Award. Now, Nehal is working to host STEM workshops for other young women throughout her country.

Keeghan hopes that his organization can continue to expand the FIRST Global impact in Saint Lucia, “We want to look into how we can make this sustainable and how we can make sure there’s a Team Saint Lucia every year.”