Opportunities

By Jasmine Oliphant

Each year FIRST offers FRC and FTC participants scholarships through colleges and universities, professional associations, and corporations. In 2008 1 in 4 applicants were awarded scholarships which ranged from $1,000 to full tuition.

Each scholarship is unique and has its own award amount, eligibility requirements, application requirements, and application deadline. Participants are allowed to apply for as many scholarships as they wish. Some scholarships renewable each year if students maintain an acceptable academic average.

These scholarships enable students to pursue careers in engineering, computer science, math, design, aeronautics, and many other fields. Scholarships are offered to high school seniors, juniors and college students.

To view current FIRST Scholarship Opportunities listing is log on to: http://www.usfirst.org/scholarshipsearch.aspx. Plan to log before the build season if possible to get a head start. If you have any questions about the application process, contact the scholarship provider directly. Log on often since the list is constantly being updated.

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Get Involved in Summer pyGames

Students from the animation and programming teams were hard at work this summer gaming. You may picture students sittng around a large screen thumbing away at control, but students were actually making a game.

Students develope a math game named Burnie's Balloons for something called the "XO Laptop." This is part of the One Laptop Per Child program that has developed low cost computers to distribute to children worldwide to enable them to develop computer skills. Over 3,000 laptops have been distributed to South Carolina schools through the Palmetto Project.

This summer Team 342 will be developing more games that will be available for download online and distributed to strudents throughout South Carolina. The team is calling all high school age students, including rising 9th graders, who are interested in learning programming, art, and graphic skills to get involved.

If you are interested in participating please contact Elizabeth.Barndollar@BAEsystems.com (843)614-5387. Keep an eye on team 342's site for updates and developments!

Left: Burnie's Balloons game; Right: the team working on developing the game

The team will continue to attend community events throughout the year so visit our site often to see when we'll be popping up next.

More Team 342 In the News:
Robotics Team Wins Award
Building Engineering Skills
http://www.journalscene.com/photoblog/barcamp