Phoenix VEX Makes it to Worlds!

We are students at Palmetto Scholars Academy in North Charleston, SC. We live all over the Lowcountry but come together at PSA, which is a public charter school on the edge of Joint Base Charleston. As a public charter school, our school receives less funding than traditional public schools, and this year has been difficult to fund our VEX Robotics program. We have parents who have stepped up to be coaches and have self-funded all of our travel for tournaments this year.

This season we had two middle school teams and three high school teams. Three teams (1 from MS and 2 from HS) have qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, TX at the end of April 2023! These teams have had an impressive season so far, with two Tournament Champion awards, four Tournament Finalist awards, two semi-finalist awards, two quarterfinalist awards, two Skills Champions awards, and seven other judged awards at various tournaments around the state. Palmetto Scholars Academy has a long tradition of being one of the top VEX Robotics programs in the state.

Now we need to figure out how to afford to get all 15 students and our parents to Dallas to compete with teams from across the US as well as from New Zealand, Canada, Japan, China, Finland, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and more. The approximate cost is $30,000... quite a daunting task in such a short amount of time!

Funds will be used to help cover the $1200 per team registration fee, costs for protective cases to package the robots to be able to ship them to the event, plus travel expenses for each student and one parent.

The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation studies show that 92% of students participating in robotics are more likely to take advanced STEM courses in high school or college. They also show that students who participate in robotics showed more persistence & patience (97%), collaboration with peers (96%), and commitment to work (93%). Participating in a VEX Robotics competition is more than just building a robot and then programming and driving it. We have to work together as a team to figure out our design, decide on roles within the team, scout other teams as we form alliances with them during competitions, and learn to overcome obstacles and challenges.

We would love to have your support as we prepare our teams for this next level of competition. If you'd like to support at a level of $250 or more, we would love to include your name or a company logo on our shirts. For questions or comments, please reach out to us.

Thank you for considering our request for support!

Team 9447A - RoboPhoenixes

Team 9447B - Wildcards

Team 9447G - L.E.G.O.S.