Springs Homeschool junior Ashley Farrell, 17, of Chino, was included on the Dean’s List for the 2020 FIRST Championships for FRC – First Robotics Competition. This is the most prestigious award a student can achieve through the FIRST program; she was one of 3,000 students nominated where only 10 are selected. Ashley is a founding member of Rogue Techs, a US FIRST, First Robotics Competition Robotics team.
Ashley will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New Hampshire to visit the FIRST headquarters for a special Dean’s List Winner’s Summit. Additionally, FIRST will be writing a personal letter of reference to universities and employers she is interested in. Ashley has already begun to receive admission emails from universities throughout the country due to this award.
The FRC season begins the first weekend of January with the release of the new game and rules for the upcoming season. The students then have a six-week window to analyze the new game and rules, design a robot, and then CAD their design in Solidworks (Computer Aided Drafting).
The next phase is manufacturing; the students use band saws, vertical mills, lathes, welders and hand tools to assemble their robot. Then they need to wire the electrical system, pneumatic system, motors and program the robot. This must be completed within a six-week window so the robot is ready for regional competitions in March. During our build season each team member puts in approximately 30+ hours per week, on top of school and homework.
FIRST Robotics is a competition for students as young as kindergarten to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in an interactive and supportive environment. These programs are important because students are given the chance to learn not only the hard skills of STEM, but also the soft skills that are needed in every environment: communication, public speaking, critical thinking, and teamwork. FRC specifically teaches students a number of industry-standard techniques and allows them to work side-by-side with engineers.
Each season the FRC teams have the opportunity to nominate two students from their teams to be Dean’s List nominees at a Regional Competition. Ashley was nominated from Rogue Techs for the 2020 Las Vegas Regional competition. This year, she had a phone interview by a panel of judges to determine the two students who would move on from the Las Vegas Regional to become the Dean’s List Finalist at the US FIRST World’s Championships.
On May 2, FIRST announced the World Championship Awards, and Ashley was one of the 10 students to be named Dean List Winners for 2020. Even though the physical robotics competition was cancelled this year due to the pandemic, FIRST continued with several of the most honored awards at competition, which the Dean’s List is the most prestigious award an individual student can receive through FIRST.
Ashley has been homeschooled with Springs since the 3rd grade. She has attended classes at the Learning Centers and at the high school levels. She found out about US FIRST through Springs. Ashley competed her first year on a First League League team at the Riverside Learning Center.
After her time on the Springs FLL team, Ashley and her sister, Alyssa, started their own FLL team and competed together for five years, advancing to the state championships four of those years.
Three years ago, Ashley and Alyssa, along with their friend Miles, decided to start their own FRC team, Rogue Techs, Team #6821. Rogue Techs is a community-based team, meaning that it can accept students from all locations and schools. Currently, Rogue Techs has four students who participate on the team from the Springs schools.
When she reached high school, Ashley decided to stay with the Homeschool program as it has given her the most flexible program to choose the courses that work best for her.
Ashley has been a dual enrollment student at Chaffey College for the past two years. Entering her senior year, Ashley has already accumulated over 30 college units of credit all maintaining a 4.26 GPA.
Maureen Roye, director of CITE, refers to Ashley as a “CTE superstar,” having completed two CTE Pathways – Engineering and Business Management. She is currently enrolled in two more pathways and when she completes them next year, she “will be our ‘most decorated’ Springs CTE Completer!”
Ashley’s mother, Monica, said, “To say that Ashley is over the top and we are extremely proud of her and the hard work she puts into everything she does is just an understatement. We are all very excited to see what the next year will bring in her life. Thank you for always supporting her and giving her the opportunity to thrive within Springs.”
