An inside look at what the impact of FIRST Robotics has on students and surrounding community members.
By: Emma Blakley
ESSEXVILLE, MI – On Feb. 29 the Essexville-Hampton Public Schools District announced a $1 million grant was awarded to the district to support the district regional STEM Center.
The addition of a STEM Center would not only give the robotics team more opportunities, but also:
“…allow the public to see the opportunity that we have for great STEM education at EHPS,” Ethan Shannon says. “And that’s not just through the high school robotics team, but from all of our STEM programs from kindergarten all the way through graduation.”
Ethan Shannon, a Garber High School teacher and FIRSTⓇ Robotics coach started the school robotics team, FRC Team 5216 (The E-Ville Empire), in 2014 by converting a broom closet into their first lab. They have since expanded to a 1500-square-ft classroom with a machine shop that exceeds schools many times their size.
Over the years, the team has won 6 banners: 2 for Event wins and 4 Impact Awards for community service. The team holds driving practice in the high school’s library, taking down and setting up the practice field each day.
The STEM Center will be used as a flex-space, having classrooms, lab space, and room to house the district’s FIRSTⓇ Robotics teams and surrounding activities. The center’s goal is to provide more opportunities for students to explore STEM.
FIRSTⓇ (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics is a PreK-12 program that prepares youth for their future by team-based robotic activities. FIRST is almost exclusively volunteer based, requiring support from individuals (community members) to “work” during competitions. Roles can vary from refereeing matches, to judging Impact presentations, to working crowd control.
There are 3 programs within FIRST Robotics; FIRST Lego League (FLL), involves solving real-world problems with Legos, FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), which is a smaller version of FRC, where students build a robot about the size of a shoebox to compete against other teams, and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), where students manufacture, build, and program their 125-pound robot to compete against other teams within the given game for the season. Each season has a different theme with 2024’s being related to music. The FRC game for 2024 is called Crescendo.
The E-Ville Empire robotics team bases itself under 6 core values; a family orientated environment, attention to detail, meaningful experiences, safety, Gracious ProfessionalismⓇ, and respect for others. They have hosted an annual STEM night in their library, which they hope to host in the STEM Center in the future.
Another major focus of the program is sustainability, as it requires approximately $60,000 per year in funding from business partnerships, grants, and donations to operate. The team created a comprehensive business plan that outlines their vision/mission, Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat (SWOT) Analysis, budget, etc., to make sure the program is able to run for years to come.
FIRSTⓇ Robotics is making an impact on students, as 2024 Senior Carter Davis now knows what he wants to do with his future.
“I am now certain that I would like [to attend Michigan Tech]. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into a STEM career before participating in robotics… [it] has completely changed my outlook on life.”
2026 Senior Landon Scharich also agrees.
“FIRSTⓇ has impacted me in a number of ways. Before this, I wanted to be a programmer, or maybe an IT guy. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do,” Scharich says. “After going through FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition), I’m pretty sure I want to be an engineer.”
“[The STEM Center will] naturally recruit kids to what we’re trying to do, it’ll be new, different… Kids will want to take classes there, kids will want to be part of the robotics team and use that facility,” Shannon says. “I really can’t wait to see it… be real; [to] come to life for the first time.”
The grant application consisted of 135 pages written by Garber alumnus and current PhD student at the University of Oregon, Kaylee Meyers, Garber High School teacher Ethan Shannon, and with the help of others throughout the Essexville community. The district estimates that the grant contributors compiled approximately 700 hours during the writing process.
The Garber High School Robotics team competed at the District Lake City Event March 8 – 10 and the District Midland Event March 21 – 23.
The FIRSTⓇ Robotics State Championship will take place at SVSU April 3 – 6. Those who qualify for the World Championship in Houston, Texas compete April 17 – 20. To follow the team to see event rankings, visit The Blue Alliance, or their social media pages via Instagram or Facebook.
