Five high school graduates will receive $1000 towards their post-secondary education from bursaries established by Windsor-Essex FIRST Robotics – the local organizing arm for FIRST Robotics Canada.

The annual bursaries are made possible through a generous contribution from the Windsor-Essex FIRST Robotics Committee.

“These bursaries will help empower our young people to build their future and in turn build the future prosperity of our communities,” says Michelle Bondy, Chair of the Memorial Bursary Committee.

Five bursaries are named in honour of James Broom and Spencer James – a student and mentor of FIRST Robotics teams at Maranatha Christian Academy and Belle River High School respectively – who passed away in 2014.

“Both James and Spencer inspired the people around them, and we established this bursary to honour that legacy,” says Larry Koscielski, VP of Process and Technology Development at CenterLine and Chair of Windsor-Essex FIRST Robotics.

The following students from the following high schools received bursaries to attend the following post-secondary institutions:

1. Erica Rossi, St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic High School– WiredCats Robotics (Team 5885)
2. Connor Ajersch, St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic High School– WiredCats Robotics (Team 5885)
3. Megan Gooch,Ursuline College Chatham (UCC) – CK Cyber Pack Robotics (Team 5689)
4. Jacob Beneteau, Belle River High School – Belle River Automatons (Team 4920)
5. Shahed Saleh, Vincent Massey Secondary School – Mustangs Robotics (Team 4903)

FIRST Robotics is an international high-school robotics program wherein teams of twenty to thirty students work alongside professional mentors to dream up, design and build 120 pound robots that compete in an arena.

Six years ago there was only one high school robotics team and one FIRST Lego League team operating at the grade school level.

Today, there are over 80 high school and grade school robotics teams competing in Windsor-Essex and Kent Counties.

Over 1,000 students were involved in FIRST in our area this year. 

Windsor is also home to the Windsor Essex Great Lakes District Event – which each year draws 1500 high school students from across North America. The 2020 Great Lakes District Event is set for March 26-28th, 2020.