By Wendi Reardon Price
Clarkston News Staff Writer
Clarkston High School Team RUSH 27 Robotics has spent weeks building and preparing this year’s robot and are ready for the first test.
They kick off the FIRST Robotics Competition (FTC) season this Thursday through Saturday at the Milford District at Milford High School.
“This year’s game, Charged Up, is all about seeing energy in a new light,” said junior Luke Jeung, who is team captain and is on the media and business sub team this year. “Teams are challenged to manipulate cones, yellow traffic cones, and cubes, purple inflatable cubes. They score these game pieces onto nodes to earn points. The game begins with a 15-second autonomous section, where robots are pre-programmed to complete tasks.”

He added for a minute and 45 seconds, the students on the driving team maneuver the robots to continue to earn points by scoring game pieces. The last 30 seconds is the end game period where teams work to drive onto a teeter-totter like platform called the Charge Station and balance it.
“I can’t wait to see our robot’s arm in action at our first competition,” said junior Lauren Sielinski, captain for the above chassis sub team and pit member. “Our programming team has been working so hard.”
Team RUSH finished as state champions last year and finished in the semifinals in the world championship.
Jueng shared he would love to see the team win the state championship for the second consecutive year, as no competitions were held in 2020 and 2021.
He also shared he has individual goals.
“I hope to contribute in a way that best benefits the team as well as performing well as a Dean’s List student to represent my team. I’m super excited to meet new teams at competitions, and learn about their robots and why they made them the way that they did. Seeing other people’s thoughts and design processes is intriguing to me.”
Senior Alison Scheil, on the business administration and management sub team, added she hopes the team competes to the best of their abilities.
“Personally I hope I am able to share my work with others,” she continued. “This season I am excited about competitions and being able to share my knowledge with younger students as well as share my work with other communities and other teams.”
Senior Rebekah Leininger, a first year student on the business administration and management sub team, is excited to continue learning new software like Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.
“I hope to strengthen my communication and leadership skills,” she added. “As well as continue to get to know my teammates better. As a team I hope we are able to be competitive and work well together.”
Sielinski agreed, sharing she would can’t wait to spend more time with all of the new students.
“They’re all so fun and learning so fast,” she said, adding she wants to be the best role model she can for the new students. Whether in the shop, at a competition, or just hanging out, I want to lead by example and inspire kids about the team. As a team, we hope to both inspire our students to be excited about STEM, and we hope to have the best robot in Michigan. I am so excited for competition season life to start. I can’t wait for the fun hotel rooms, fight pressure and exciting turnarounds in the pits, and the love from the stands.”
Senior Leopold Gach, on the electrical sub team, can’t wait to have an amazing last competition season. He is also excited to meet new people at competitions and training new students.
“I hope to accomplish designing my PCB (printed circuit boards) and finishing my battery tester,” he said. “As a team, I hope we can get a strong bond between each other and win states, As an individual, I hope to become a better leader.”
It’s a special year for Team RUSH 27 as they celebrate their 27th year.
“It’s cheesy, but Team RUSH has changed my life,” said Sielinski. “The team is my family and I love everyone on it so much. I have found I am passionate about mechanical engineering and plan to pursue it in college.”
“I feel inspired to spread the word about the team and make our history known,” Scheil added. “What we do is really amazing and the more people who know about it the better.”
Leininger shared the milestone is very inspiring to her.
“My mom was on the team when it was founded 27 years ago,” she said. “The fact I was also able to join the team is a very special connection.”
“This is a milestone, I’m proud to be sharing since it took hundreds of students and mentors and thousand of hours to get through all 27 years,” Gach said. “I am so proud of their legacy and hope to add to it.”
“For 27 years, Team RUSH has provided an environment for students to grow creatively as engineers, business people, and most importantly, leaders,” Jueng said.
“Team RUSH’s mission statement is to ‘create leaders who inspire people to value STEM.’ I feel that me being on this team is an amazing opportunity for me to change the lives of our community, and the global community through FIRST,” he added.