By Monique Roth
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Members of East St. John High School’s Louisiana Technology Student Association are headed to the invitation-

only VEX Robotics State Championship after qualifying for

the competition at a recent event in Baton Rouge.

TSA members participated against 15 other schools in the VEX Robotics state qualifier competition at Louisiana State University on Feb. 8.

After ranking fourth, ESJH formed an alliance with Lusher High School from New Orleans to complete the competition.

“Our team received an award for Best Robot Design, which qualified us for the state finals in Lafayette,” said Beverly Reed, TSA advisor for ESJH.

The best teams from the Lafayette competition will go on to compete at the 2014 VEX Robotics World Championship in Anaheim, Calif., said Reed. That competition will be held at the end of April.

The robotics program is just in its second year of existence at East St. John High School. Team members include Judy Chen, Annie Britton, Adonai Britton, Lori Chen, Daren Allen, Darinesha Terry, Brandon Terry, Tanner Tillett, Luis Camacho, Keith Landeche, Christopher Piper, Brian Royal, Jarron Williams, Kendrick Leonard, Kevin Vo and Kejon Moore.

“Our students were on fire as they put their heads together to come this far in just a two-year period in robotics,” Reed said.

Reed said the team was complimented very highly on the team interview and on the students’ engineer notebook. Reed said initially the judges thought that she, rather than the students, had developed the notebook.

“Even after the competition, our team’s notebook was requested by the officials to show another school what a good notebook looks like,” said Reed.

State finals will take place Feb. 22 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the University of Louisiana’s Oliver Hall. The event is open to the public. The top three teams out of the 17 competitors will advance to the World Championship.