In cooperation with the Schools Partnership Program, students at Dublin High School’s Robotics Club built a robot that would shoot soccer balls so our student-athletes with limited mobility would be able to participate. Learn more about the exciting endeavor here.
A mother of one of the students who helped build the robot wrote a letter that she shared with her local school board.
Thank you for this opportunity to share with you something that inspired me as a parent. My son, Matthew, is a junior at Dublin High and a member of the Robotics Club. Recently, the Robotics Club was approached by Mr. Eric Hamilton, an Adapted Physical Educator for Dublin Unified School District, to see if the club would be interested in creating robots that could be used by children with special needs at the upcoming soccer and basketball Special Olympic events. A special team was created by the club to focus on making Mr. Hamilton’s vision for these special children a reality. My son was very excited to be a part of the effort. He said that to build something that could help children have a special day meant so much more to him than working to win a Robotics competition. Under the direction of Ms. Eugene Chou, Math/Engineering teacher at Dublin High and Campus Advisor to the Robotics Club, the team spent hundreds of hours working to create robots that would emulate kicking a soccer ball or throwing a basketball through a hoop. The task was much harder than it looked especially for basketball. There was a lot of trial and effort but at last they had working robots to use at the upcoming events.
I was honored to be able to attend each of those Special Olympic days. It was truly heartwarming to watch the Robotics team interact with the children and help them have fun using the robots. As with any machine, there were a few hiccups here and there but it was amazing to watch how excited the kids would get when the ball would launch. A number of the parents of the children attending the event told me how much it meant to them that the Robotics team would work so hard for their children. Many had tears in their eyes as they watched their kids have fun with the robots. They were amazed at what the Robotics team had built.
Often the news surrounding our schools is negative. I wanted to be able to share with you something so encouraging. The effort that it took Mr. Hamilton and all those involved with the Special Olympics to organize, transport and encourage the children was amazing. I watched as Mr. Hamilton made special effort to protect each child’s dignity and make them feel special. Dublin Unified School District is blessed to have such dedicated teachers working so hard for our children. I am blessed my kids are healthy and GATE. To see my son using his God-given abilities to help other children with Special Needs is watching education at its best.
You can just hear the pride in her voice as she speaks about her son and his club’s accomplishments.
Thank you to the teachers and Robotics Club at Dublin High for making this a reality and to the mother for sharing her letter!