It was spring of 2013, and Salem Academy had just received a grant from the Mebane Foundation to fund a robotics team for the 2013-2014 school year. Everybody was so excited! The driving force behind applying for and receiving this grant was student interest in engineering and robotics, as well as the idea that there should be more women in STEM fields. After researching different options, the original faculty mentors, Ms. Sorrells and Ms. Weimer, choose to work with the FIRST Tech Competition program. In September of 2013, the Salem Academy Robotics Team became officially active! They were called 'Sisters of the Motherboard: 7444.' Eventually, student passion for engineering grew so large within the Salem community that there were enough students to create another team: 'Code Sisters: 15333.' These teams have been and will continue to be student run. The team leaders are responsible for designing the robot, sorting and organizing parts, keeping up with the game manual plans and changes, learning to program and code the robots, completing engineering notebook entries, assisting with fundraising, coming up with outreach ideas, helping to apply for grants, running the social media handles, designing and organizing the website, and much, much more! Our lovely team members work together to create a beautiful and successful robot, and have fun while doing it! When the teams need support, the faculty mentors are there to help. The main job for our faculty mentors is to order supplies, pay the bills, and give emotional support!
