East High student finds a love of STEM through robotics
One day on her way to engineering class at East High School, Melissa Hermosillo-Nava saw something unusual.
"I was confused," she said. "I saw a robot there and it was a big robot and it was something that a team had made."
Building a robot had never even crossed her mind. She says she is a daughter of immigrants and there were some things she was just never exposed to as a young child.
"I honestly never had experienced anything STEM-related growing up," she said. "I was wondering how students my age could build robots."
She learned East High School has a robotics team she could join to learn how to build robots like their current robot "Heart of Chrome." That was a huge surprise for her.
"I never really had access or knowledge that competitions like first or robots even existed," she said.
She joined to learn math and science but she ended up learning much more.
"How to communicate with my team members. How to be a leader," she said.
She and her team spent Friday competing in the Colorado First Robotics competition. They were performing well, but more importantly, they were learning important skills that will help shape what they will do with their lives.
Melissa already knows it has shaped hers.
"I had no idea what I wanted to do, and I had no sort of guidance. But through robotics, I not only have a vision of what I want to do with my future, but I know how to get there," she said.
