NSIDE:
`Jewish Cool'
In New York
120
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DIANA LIEBERMAN
StaffWriter
aura Fletcher, a junior at Troy High
School, went to a FIRST competition
four years ago to cheer for her older
brother, Andy. Now she's running the
.\\
A Troy
teen isn't
"robotic"
at school
and at
synagogue.
Laura Fletcher
stands next to
the Troy team's
robot arm.
team.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of
Science and Technology), a national non-profit
program, is best known for its high-energy high
school competitions. This year, its events attract-
ed about 1,900 students from 373 high schools.
"You have to see it for yourself," Fletcher
says. "It's not what people think of when they
think of an engineering competition."
With a student body of about 2,200, Troy
High has only six Jewish students, Fletcher esti-
mates. She meets other Jewish teens through
Congregation Shir Tikvah and its Troy Area
Temple Youth, where she is president this year.
"My brother and I were the only Jewish kids
in our elementary school," she says. "My mom
would bring in Chanuka gelt, dreidels.
Everybody loved it."
Fletcher, 16, is also a minority on the Troy
High FIRST team, which has five girls among
its 60 members.
When she was still a middle-school spectator
with an interest in math and science, Troy
High's team had only 11 members — all male.
Elbowing her way onto the team was a little
easier because her brother and his friends made
up the core.
"They weren't like scary upper-classmen," she
says. "But with any random group of people, it's
hard to get your words in, especially when they
are a bunch of engineers. Then they realized I
knew what I was talking about."
The FIRST competition requires the teams
to solve a new problem each year. Although
teams have six weeks to build their robots,
details of the annual problem are kept secret
until the beginning of the competition.
Each team has a corporate or university spon-
sor, and Troy High's was the Controls, Robotics
and Welding (CRW) Department at General
Motors' Car Group. Also contributing were
Delphi Automotive and Beaumont. Service Co.
"I felt like GM was my second home — I
worked there at least three hours a day, five days
a week," Fletcher says.
Fletcher was organizer of the Troy High
team, which took the name "Manhattan
Project" after the atomic bomb development.
4/28
2000
U5