DALTON, Ga. — Betzy Cruz said it was “a week I’ll never forget.”

Cruz, a senior at Southeast Whitfield High School and a member of the Career Blazers Robotics —The Fighting Mongooses from the Northwest Georgia College & Career Academy, traveled with the team recently to Houston to participate in the FIRST Robotics World Championship. FIRST is an acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

“I went to St. Louis and now Texas, so it’s an exciting way for us to close this chapter,” Cruz said. The team had competed in the world championship in St. Louis three years ago, receiving the Rookie Inspiration Award.

The season has now ended for this year’s team.

Cruz said it’s been a “great journey.”

“We’ve grown from 13 to 42 members and developed an outreach program with middle school students,” she said. “It speaks to how dedicated this team is. We’re reaching out trying to bring them to the team.”

Cruz has been on the team since it started and said she enjoyed competing and socializing in Houston. 

“It was interesting meeting people from other countries and watching them incorporate their culture in competing,” she said. 

Cruz said she will miss the robotics team, but learned “so many skills.”

“The main skill is being able to collaborate with other people,” she said. “I think FIRST emphasizes it and so does our team. That in itself is the biggest takeaway I have.”

Kim Huynh, a senior at Southeast, called going to the world championship this time a “re-experience.”

“We were quite small our first year,” she said. “Evolving to such a big team and going again as a senior is amazing because it’s like a senior gift. I am very grateful and excited.” 

Pablo Avila, a freshman at Southeast, said, “It’s a once in a lifetime experience that we’re very proud about.”

Matthew McHan, a sophomore at Northwest Whitfield High School, said he was “honored” to attend the world championship. 

Marten Hutchison, a coach for The Fighting Mongooses, has been with the team since the beginning.

“The team going to world twice since it began is a great thing,” he said. “The last time we went it was a big motivator for the team.”

Hutchison said he thinks this trip will “invigorate the new guys joining the team.”

Diego Calderon, a full-time student at the Career Academy, said he joined the robotics team to jumpstart his career in engineering. 

“I love the culture we have as a team,” he said. “Every day we come in here working together and combining our ideas. It’s just a real fun environment to be around.” 

Brian Cooksey, director of workforce development at Shaw Industries, one of the team’s sponsors, and a mentor for the team, said he is proud of the team members.

“They worked hard to design and build a solid robot, made the playoffs at both of their regular season competitions, and qualified to compete at the state championships for the fourth consecutive year,” he said.

The team competed in the Peachtree District Qualifier at the Dalton Convention Center in March. That competition featured 38 teams from Georgia including the North Murray High School Mountaineers and the Dalton High School Catabots.

The Catabots and The Fighting Mongooses competed in the state championship at LakePoint Champions Center in Emerson April 3-6 with The Fighting Mongooses finishing 25th out of 45 teams from across the state and advancing to the world championship. The team also won the Team Spirit Award, which is given to a team whose members maintain a positive attitude in the face of adverse conditions and challenging situations during a competition. 

Cooksey said the team also earned three awards that recognized their outstanding team spirit, unified branding and business plan. 

“We have a diverse group of young people who stayed focused, worked hard and represented themselves, Dalton and their sponsors extremely well,” he said.

Cooksey said it was great seeing the students interact with international teams from more than 40 countries, including Australia, China, India, Japan and Mexico.

“It was an amazing opportunity for 42 team members and seven sponsors traveling to Houston,” he said. “We appreciate the generous donors and sponsors who helped make this possible.”