Did you know that only two years ago, three juniors (now seniors) of Branford High School founded Branford’s first ever competitive robotics club? To be exact, the co-founders are Christian Bjork, Daniel DeCerbo-O’Brien and Joshua Josephy-Zack, and the official name of the club is the Branford High School / Walsh Intermediate School Competitive Robotics Club.

2019 marked the club’s second year, and to keep their momentum going, the boys submitted an application to BCF for a grant.
BCF was thrilled to provide support through a grant of $2,000 which helped to fund event registration, promotional materials, bus cost, robot supplies and many other essentials.

The Competitive Robotics Club is part of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a global organization dedicated to fostering student interest in STEM-related fields. (STEM is an acronym for fields of science, technology, engineering and math.)

The three co-founders have taken FIRST to heart, working diligently toward their original goal of filling a hole in the Branford Public Schools system for STEM education. “Over the past few years, Branford’s schools have been slowly making progress in this area; our hope was the we could accelerate this progress, and I am of the belief that we accomplished this goal,” reported the co-founders in their 2019 Grant Evaluation: Mid-Year Report.

Last year, the robotics team consisted of 13 members and two coaches, and the robotics club is always scouting for new members. The team works closely to prepare for competition in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), for which students in grades 7 through 12 are eligible. Students, under the guidance of volunteer mentors, parents, professionals and others, are required to work under strict rules and limited resources to build and program robots that perform challenging tasks.

If designing or building robots sounds like fun to you, please reach out to Joshua Josephy-Zack by email: jjosephyzack@branfordschools.org. To learn more about BCF grants, visit Our Grants page or call 203.444.4898 today!