Mission Statement
We are a high school FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) robotics team from Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles . Since 2001, our team has set out to change the way our culture perceives STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers. Adhering to the spirit of FIRST , our Mission is to encourage, motivate, and inspire young men and women through the use of Robotics to pursue their interests in the STEM fields. We foster a positive, humanistic and multicultural experience that cultivates teamwork, responsibility and commitment to all stakeholders involved: students, teachers, parents, mentors, sponsors and our community.
Description
Foshay Learning Center is a school located in Los Angeles, California. We are a K-12 school and with approximately 4,000 students enrolled. Our high school consists of four academies: 9th Grade House, Technology Academy, Finance Academy, and Health Academy. These academies exist to give our students opportunities and an overview of the many careers in life one can choose from. Though our school does a great job of offering these academies, we needed to prepare our students for the demands of the 21st century.
FIRST Robotics Team 597 was founded in 2001 by Mr. D. Newhouse(a math teacher) and Ms. L. Beebe(a technology teacher) in the heart of South LA. Aware of limited options that our students have, the founding mentors implemented FIRST Robotics to bring more hands-on activities which require students to apply math, science, engineering, and technology concepts in real-world situations. Our team, Team 597, started out with about six students, two teachers, one college-student mentor, and two volunteers. Our team as grown substantially from students to mentors likewise to attracting even more members to approximately 40 students, one teacher, eleven 597-alumni College mentors, and four engineering mentors. Furthermore, Mr. Newhouse, the last original mentor, is as committed to motivating the students as the day when he first started the team.
