SHELBURNE, Vt. (WCAX) – The FIRST Lego League Vermont State Championship returns to GlobalFoundries this weekend, and one Shelburne Community School student recently received special recognition at the Statehouse for his robotics work.
Zachary Kornstein, a 6th grader, was invited to the Statehouse by Lieutenant Governor John Rodgers as a representative of FIRST Robotics in Vermont. The beginning of January marks the start of the legislative session, and Rodgers used the opportunity to highlight the young roboticist.
“I get the pleasure of introducing a young man that represents the future of Vermont. I get to pick one guest to sit in the well of the House, and I invited Zachary Kornstein,” Rodgers said. “I would like Zach to stand up and be recognized.”
Kornstein is part of the Robocats, a team of students working together on a Lego robot ahead of the FIRST Lego League state championships this weekend. He said seeing other students inspired him to join.
“The kids would come into my classroom, and I would go, Oh, what’s this? This looks interesting. So, when I was in 4th grade, I decided let’s do it, and I’ve stuck with it ever since,” Kornstein said.
FIRST in Vermont starts and maintains robotics teams for grades K through 12. Kornstein’s team is one of 37 going head-to-head.
“Every year, the game that they play is a little bit different. The game will have anywhere from 15 to 20 different challenges, and they have to design and build a robot that is gonna try and interact with game pieces and score points,” explained FIRST’s Joseph Chase.
FIRST in Vermont has 114 robotics teams across the state, but Chase said some parts of the state are still out of their reach. “That map is unfortunately all across the northern border, Orange County, Windham County, Bennington County. Those are places we need to expand the opportunity for teams. That’s why we’re trying to get folks in those areas, but we’re also trying to get more help,” Chase said.
He said that it starts with building partnerships in those communities with businesses and manufacturers via economic and mentoring support. “The more we can get mentors into schools, the more students can start to see their future. They see, Hey, I could have a career here in Vermont,” Chase said.
Chase said many FIRST program graduates go on to work at Vermont tech hubs like GlobalFoundries and Beta Technologies. Kornstein could be one of those kids.
“It helps narrow down my career choice, I would say. It’s like, I know I can do this, so what else should I do?” Kornstein said. Until then, he has the state championship to focus on. “I think this could be our year. We just don’t know how everyone else is gonna do, but I know we will do our best.”
