On Wednesday, February 8, five members of Ferradermis, Whitewater High School’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team, were accompanied by mentors Dilpreet Randhawa, Brienne Brown, and Laura Masbruch as they travelled to the state capitol to raise awareness for FIRST with their state representatives during FIRST Wisconsin Advocacy Day.
Seniors Daniel (Peter) Portwine and Jazmin Cederberg, Junior Cosette Wildermuth-Breitzman, Sophomore Maddison LaHaie, and Freshman Margaret Brown spent the morning at Monona Terrace, hearing from the leadership of FIRST Wisconsin and members of other FIRST teams from middle and high schools around the state about advocacy. They also learned about SASA, the Student Association for STEM Advocacy.
Kevin Anderson from the Department of Public Instruction spoke with the students about the details of the Robotics League Participation Grant which was originally created by the state legislature in 2015 as part of Act 280. This grant is guaranteed to all Wisconsin robotics teams in grades 6-12 who apply and is meant to act as a $5000 matching grant to help offset the costs of competition. However, as the number of robotics teams in Wisconsin has grown, the pool of money allotted to the grant has not kept pace, despite an increase in a previous budget cycle. In the latest round of grant awards for the 2023 season, teams were awarded approximately $3800 each. A major goal of Advocacy Day was for students to ask their legislators to increase the pool of funds for this grant during the next budget cycle. Ferradermis has benefitted from this grant in each of their seven years of competition, so it is important to the team to see this funding continue and potentially increase.
During the morning session, students also heard from Dan Rossmiller, who is currently the Director of Government Relations for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. Mr. Rossmiller helped the students understand the inner-workings of the state legislature and the budget process. The morning wrapped up with a mock meeting staged with Renee Becker-Blau, the new President of FIRST Wisconsin, and a group of students who had previously attended the National Advocacy Conference in Washington DC.
After lunch, the students headed to the State Capitol Building and held meetings with their various representatives. The crew from Ferradermis began with a joint meeting with Senator Steve Nass and Representative Ellen Schutt, who both represent the districts in which the students live. For this session, the students of Ferradermis led the nearly thirty-minute meeting but incorporated members of a FIRST LEGO League Team and a FIRST Tech Team from the Clinton and Beloit areas who are in the same districts.
The team then also joined or led separate meetings with Senator Chris Larson of Madison, Representative Francesca Hong from Madison, and Representative Kristina Shelton from Green Bay. Representatives Hong and Shelton are both members of the Assembly Committee on Education, and Senator Larson sits on the Senate Committee on Education, so the team felt it was important to help them learn about FIRST and the need for increased funding for the robotics grant.
Student reaction to the day was highly positive. The students felt the meetings went well, and they left feeling like they had successfully shared their passion for FIRST Robotics. As one student said as the crew was leaving the capitol, “this experience really humanized politics.”
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