Grant Application for
Petoskey Robotics
Mission Statement:
To invoke a sense of inclusiveness as we encourage learning and personal growth within our team, FIRST, and our community.
Fiscal agent if applicant is not tax exempt:
Public Schools of Petoskey
Tax ID Number:
38-6001179
Contact First Name:
Contact Last Name:
Aubrey
McKigney
Address:
650 Bellmer Rd
Email:
Phone Number:
2314894367
Website:
Project Name:
All-Female Robotics Competition
Project start and end dates:
October 11, 2025
October 12, 2025
Amount Requested:
$
2000
Project Description:
An all-female student-led subteam of the Petoskey Paladins high school robotics team is organizing participation in an all-female robotics competition called The Goonettes Invitational. We will reach out to other local FIRST Robotics teams to invite female members from their teams to join us. Competing in this event gives our female students an opportunity to fill leadership and technical roles frequently filled by male students. As an example, the Petoskey Paladins regional competition robot was driven by two male Operators and our pit crew was predominantly male. While the team as a whole achieved 50% female membership this year, many of those roles are currently in non-technical, non-STEM positions like Communications and Marketing. This competition requires technical, operating, planning, programming, and strategy positions to be filled by female students.
Goal of the Project
How many people will you reach?
3000
What percentage are female?
75
If your program serves both males and females, how will Hestia funds specifically target women and girls?
NA
How are recipients identified or selected to receive services? Is financial need considered?
All female members of the Petoskey Paladins robotics team are given the opportunity to participate in the all-female offseason competition event. Additionally, we reach out to other local FIRST Robotics teams to ask their female members to participate with us. Our goal is to fully fund participation through fundraising and grants, to eliminate any potential financial barriers. If we are unable to cover total costs, we will discuss how to address any potential situations where financial need could become a barrier to participation.
What do you hope to achieve? What difference will this make in the lives of women and girls?
How will this project meet Hestia's mission statement?
This event opens up positions that have been historically male, such as Driver, Technical Controller, Programmer, and Pit Crew (repairing mechanical and electrical issues on the robot between matches). Our expectation is that by allowing greater participation by females in these tech-heavy STEM roles we will empower more young women to pursue continued education and careers in STEM fields that have historically been dominated by men. Increased access and encouragement to pursue these fields directly supports Hestia's mission statement to promote economic self-sufficiency and well-being for women and girls by demonstrating their ability to pursue careers in these high-compensation fields.
We also believe participation will promote female empowerment, inclusion, and confidence building by demonstrating our young women have the skills and ability to fill historically male roles and compete at a high level. We hope this will also translate into more female students filling these technical roles during regular season full-team competitions in the future.
See news segment at this link for more information about the competition and benefits to young women: https://www.goonettesinvitational.org/in-the-news
How will you evaluate or measure your success:
Participation will be a key metric to evaluate success. Last year we had 7 female students participate in the event. We plan to exceed that number this year. Also, we will survey participants after the event to get feedback on each participant's experience, how it benefited them, and what we can do to improve the experience in future years. We will also present a summary of the event and participant feedback to our full Petoskey Paladins robotics team and include information about the event in our community engagement materials.
Grant Project Budget Form
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