Power Hawks Robotics, Inc

Power Hawks Robotics is a certified non-profit robotics team from South River High School in Edgewater Maryland. Founded in 2003, Power Hawks has earned a reputation not just for their work on the competitive field, but for their work in the community as well, reaching out to bring science and engineering knowledge to students in the elementary, middle and high school levels in central Maryland. Maryland students from underserved communities get the opportunity to learn engineering skills in a hands-on way, whether it’s in robotics summer camps or as members of teams started at their schools with Power Hawks financial help and mentoring. Our goal is to change students' lives, and we hear stories that make us very proud! Power Hawks has made a difference in Maryland for two decades now!

Covid had an effect on the Power Hawks just like it did everyone else, and we are lifting ourselves up in a rebuilding year, regrowing our membership, relearning our craft, and reaching back out into county schools to get younger teams back on their feet, back to teaching students about engineering. We do this by putting tools in their hands, giving them the opportunity to learn by doing, and by building robots big and small designed to do things that are hard and are a challenge. When students succeed at hard things their lives are transformed.

Power Hawks entered this year hoping to do well, hoping to finish in respectable positions in local competitions in a year that needed to be spent rebuilding our team. The team is younger than most this year, but these young students rose to the occasion, met their goals, then exceeded them. They conceived and built a great robot, unique in design and tough as nails. Hopes for “doing well” were far surpassed, with the team reaching three levels deep into the playoffs in their first competition and

reaching the semi-finals in their second. (We missed the finals by JUST TWO POINTS!) We have found ourselves headed to the Chesapeake District Championship competition at George Mason University, and potentially to compete in the World Championships in Houston, Texas!

And that’s why we’re here. As you can imagine, taking 29 students to Houston for the four-day competition costs money. It exceeds our budget for what was supposed to be a rebuilding year. We are blessed with sponsorships from the community, but this year we need more. We need additional funding to give the Power Hawks the opportunity to practice their craft at a global level of competition. This once-in-a-lifetime event will change their lives and change their future. Unfortunately, there is one thing holding us back. We ask for your help to meet the financial needs this blessing would place upon

the team.

Power Hawks is proud of our history and excited for our future. We are students and mentors of every creed, color, and gender, coming together with a united purpose – to build future leaders and improve people's lives through robotics and to change the world for the better. Give us an opportunity to bring this message to the world stage. Give us an opportunity to continue the journey.

"We do not use kids to build robots; we use robots to build kids!"