I've never been the type to seek out leadership roles. I usually preferred supporting and contributing to the team’s success from within. Throughout high school, I competed in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) where I helped my team in any way that would best achieve our goals. For the 2024 tournament challenge, we needed to build a robot capable of shooting rings into targets, including a tricky vertical target. In FRC, collaboration is a critical component to success, we’re expected to create alliances and compete in what’s called “Coopertition” in order to gain the most points. Before the build season started, I was focused on preparing our workspace and organizing supplies. When our mentor, Mr. Dodds, assigned subsystem manufacturing leads, I hadn’t planned on applying. I felt unsure about taking on a major leadership role. But Mr. Dodds encouraged me saying he thought I’d be a perfect fit, and his confidence drove mine. I decided to lead the elevator subsystem, the robot’s essential mechanism to lift and aim the shooter. This was a critical component for our performance because it enabled the primary way to score points for our team. My role was to take the designer’s plan, construct it, test for issues, recommend adjustments, and repeat until it was flawless. On the first version of the elevator, I noticed a faulty 3D-printed support piece that required a complete rebuild. While I initially wanted to just force the piece into place, I realized more detailed work was needed. I took the time to reassemble it carefully and it was worth it for how smooth it was after the repair. Later, I identified a chain system problem affecting the shooter’s angle. I was nervous about bringing this issue to the design team because I did not want to criticize their work, but I knew if we worked together we could continue to improve the shooter's accuracy. I pushed myself to talk to them and together created a new custom tensioning system that improved functionality and saved space on the robot by placing the system on the bottom rather than the top. At the competitions, I needed to continue to keep a close watch on the robot’s performance. After a few rounds, we noticed that a lead screw, which is the most important part in making the elevator move, came detached. I jumped in the “pit” to take the lead on the repair while others followed my instructions and helped find the tools and parts we needed. Thankfully we repaired the robot in time for the next match. We ultimately won the District and Regional championships and went on to compete in the World Championship. I learned so much that year like patience from having to rebuild a large portion of the robot, teamwork from repairing the robot after matches, and assertiveness through working with the design team to push for new solutions. I know these are skills that I will continue to build on in college and beyond. I’m grateful that Mr. Dodds believed in me and helped me see myself as a leader who is ready to take on new challenges.