Coronavirus Outbreak Keeps The Commodore John Rodgers School From Competing At Vex Robotics World Championships
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Commodore John Rodgers School robotics team had plans to compete in the Vex Robotics World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky, in hopes of claiming a title in their first year.
Due to travel restrictions surrounding the coronavirus implemented by the school district, however, plans have changed.
"We grow up from a hard area where no one would expect us to go this far," Johanna Betancourt, a seventh-grader, said. "None would have expected this team from east Baltimore to go to Kentucky for the World Championship Tournament."
In just their first year, the robotics team at the Commodore John Rodgers School -- made up of 12 students from grades six through eight -- is already making a name for themselves.
They claimed a National Title and qualified for the World Championship Tournament.
"It's just a big step forward for us," Nalani Stones, a sixth-grader, said.
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Students have been hard at work for weeks preparing for the Vex Robotics World Championships in Louisville.
In order to keep competing, the program needs extra cash, so the team launched a GoFundMe.
On Friday, Baltimore City Schools canceled all domestic and international travel outside of Maryland and Washington D.C. until June 15 amid the coronavirus outbreak.
That means the Commodore John Rodgers School robotics team will no longer be heading to the competition stage at the World Championships.
"We were really devastated, but at the same time, we would understand that coronavirus isn't really a laughing matter, its something that is taking people's lives away," Stones said.
But students aren't letting this minor setback get in their way.
"There's nothing we could do about it," Betancourt said. "We can't be like, 'Oh, you need to stop doing it., We were just happy we got the opportunity."
In the meantime, the school's robotic program continues to inspire young minds to dream bigger.
"We know that next year, we're going to come back harder, even stronger, even better -- and we're just going to compete and hopefully make it to the same spot in the worlds," Stones said.
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