News in Brief: Robotics Grant & Blanket Drive
The Robotics Club gets a formal grant from the CCA for future competition
The Robotics Club focuses on exposing students to hands-on engineering in a real world environment. However, the club requires significant funding to both make their robots as well as enter competitions. The Community College Association (CCA) decided to formally give a portion of a $5,000 robotics’ grant to the advisors and club members after school on Dec.18. The Robotics Club plans to use the grant to prepare for their spring competition. “This will help a great deal,” said Charles Seabury, one of the club’s advisors. The robotics club has also received other grants and support. They received $5,000 from the Santa Clarita Community College District, $3,000 from Amgen, $2,000 from Haas Automation, and $1,000 from Electrical Engineering Society.
Freshman takes on coats and blankets for homeless
Freshman Talia Johnson and her father are on a mission to collect 500 coats and blankets for the homeless foundation Federn Mission of Los Angeles. Johnson and her family have been working on charity projects since she was two years old. Last year, they began collecting blankets for their own project aimed at spreading awareness about the prevalence of homelessness. “I think even getting one blanket donated is successful, because that means we can help at least one person stay warm,” said Johnson. This year, they decided to also collect coats. The Johnsons plan to expand their project every year by adding in other donations such as shoes, hats, or even shirts to their original blankets drive.
“I feel like people ignore the homeless – not intentionally though.” Johnson said. “But really, homeless people are people as well. They are still human beings. I believe that they should be taken care of and recognized just as anyone else would.” In order to spread awareness, Johnson writes scripts and speeches to read to her church, neighbors, school, and other organizations. For Johnson and her family, success is not measured by how many blankets and coats they can collect but rather how many people they can help. “When we arrived to give the donations (last year), we saw some of the homeless people lining up, so we know it was going for a good cause,” said Johnson.
