First and Foremost
- Benjamin Lerner
- 5 days ago
- 16 min read
A closer look at the FIRST youth robotics programs in Southern Vermont and beyond
STORY BY BENJAMIN LERNER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS DISSINGER
On September 6, 2025, the Manchester Community Library buzzed with a level of excitement and anticipation akin to a football game or a rock concert. Robots rolled around on an enclosed arena, while students clustered in groups swapping technical facts and sharing heartfelt moments of camaraderie. Parents hovered nearby while coaches circled the room, keeping the focus steady as the countdown to the global livestream reveal began.
This was the kickoff event for a unique and groundbreaking robotics program: the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC).
FIRST (which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”), is a global nonprofit that runs age-tiered robotics competitions: FIRST LEGO League (FLL) for grades K–8, FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) for grades 7–12, and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) for high school teams building large-scale robots. Vermont is part of this international community, but its youth robotics ecosystem has its own flavor: intimate, scrappy, and fueled by grassroots energy.
This year, season kickoff events were held around the state in Bennington, Montpelier, and on campus at UVM in Burlington, all co-hosted by local teams. Manchester Machine Makers (Team #16221) and the Bennington-based Cookie Clickers (Team #18650) gathered at the Manchester Community Library with additional FTC teams from Rutland and Springfield, expanding the event’s regional impact. The library became a proving ground for design, coding, and collaboration as the teams gathered together in a circle to celebrate the start of a new season, reflecting on their accomplishments and the lessons they had learned in years past.
The game challenge changes every year, and is top secret until the global livestream from FIRST HQ begins. In this year’s “DECODE” game, robots built by the young team members must identify and sort color-coded “artifacts,” read “April tag” QR codes for autonomous scoring, flip open gates that release game pieces, and race back to a home base for extra points in the final seconds. The game combines elements of cutting-edge coding, robotic engineering, strategy, and teamwork in a way that is thrilling and intellectually engaging in equal measure.
For students, the kickoff was more than just the start of a year-long game; it was a snapshot of everything FIRST stands for: creativity, competition, and cooperation. It also embodied an overarching philosophical concept of unifying sportsmanship, which FIRST refers to as “gracious professionalism.” In the weeks after the kickoff event, which will lead up to the regional and international FTC competitions, we spoke to the coaches of the Manchester Machine Makers and the Cookie Clickers, as well as key figures at UVM Extension 4-H and at FIRST in Vermont, embarking on a deep and detailed journey into the exciting world of youth robotics and STEM in Vermont and beyond.
Manchester Machine Makers: Local Roots, Great Ambition
In Southern Vermont, the Manchester Machine Makers FTC team has become a vital hub for students looking to explore robotics, coding, and teamwork. Founded in 2019 by Mike Cole, the team began with just three or four students, but it quickly grew and made a resonant impact. “Mike has a particular talent for getting people together and reaching out into the technical community,” explains Patty Rutins, the team’s current head coach. “He took it upon himself, just as someone who really wants to further STEM in this area. Thanks to Mike’s original efforts, we now have this club, which is a big deal for kids who are looking for that outlet.”
The team was structured from the beginning as a 4-H club, unaffiliated with a single school, so students from across the community could participate. That flexibility remains one of its defining strengths. Students come from Burr & Burton Academy, Long Trail School, Maple Street School, The Dorset School, and local homeschools. “We don’t want the restriction of only taking kids from one school,” Rutins explained. “We’ve got too many schools and too many kids that are interested in order to limit ourselves.”
The Machine Makers made their competitive debut at the 2020 Regional Championship, where they won the Think Award, one of FIRST Tech Challenge’s judged honors. Rutins elaborates: “The Think Award specifically aims toward rewarding a good process and documenting that process. It was a big deal for the team to win the Think Award in their first year.”
Rutins became more deeply involved with the team during the 2020–21 season at the height of the pandemic. Her son joined as an eighth grader while attending the Dorset School, and the unusual circumstances of remote learning pushed her family to look for opportunities outside of the classroom. “We spent that whole year remote from school, and we had to look for things he could do remotely,” says Rutins. She adds that students met in garages and on Zoom to keep the spark alive. “Nobody was sure how a robotics team would function in 2020–21. That year, the FTC competition itself ended up being remote. Teams played the game and submitted scores by video.”
Since then, the Machine Makers have found their footing. Burr & Burton Academy (BBA) provides space for their team meetings, giving them a reliable home base. “The first year we were at BBA, Kevin Morrison, one of the robotics teachers, brought us in and gave us a closet to store our stuff,” Rutins says with a laugh. “We would meet, work in the hallway, and then put everything back into the closet when we were done. Now we’ve got a much more sustainable setup.”
For Rutins, the true value of FIRST is not just in the machines, but in the growth that students experience. “Generally, the longer a kid has been in the program, the more confident they get. Putting together a robot, having the experience of doing that, seeing how it works, and then explaining how you built it to the judges is a big developmental step. They gain so much just from doing that, whether or not it actually scores any points in the game.”
Every season, students brainstorm designs, experiment with different coding and engineering approaches, and learn from trial and error. Sometimes two or more developing prototypes for the same robot are built simultaneously by different team members, just to see which idea works best. “We encourage the ideation and following through on any idea that they want to actualize,” explains Rutins. “Even if we’re kind of scattered, they learn what the challenges are, how to overcome them, and how to accept that someone else’s idea might work better. That’s the emotional maturity part of it. That’s ‘gracious professionalism.’”When asked about the Manchester Machine Makers’ robots for the current season, Rutins chose to offer a quirky, lighthearted reflection on the last season’s robot instead: “Last year, our team members worked on a robot that they named ‘Cordelia.’ Cordelia liked to say ‘quack.’”
The Machine Makers also embrace FIRST’s theme of “coopertition”—a buzzword that celebrates the blend of cooperative and competitive spirit. Early-season scrimmages often turn into collaborative problem-solving sessions, with teams lending each other parts, code, and advice. “That’s what these scrimmages are all about,” shares Rutins. “Teams get together, and they have no problem saying to one another, ‘I cannot get this thing to work, can you help me?’ And if anybody achieves any part of the challenge, there are cheers all around.”
Rutins points out that running a robotics team requires more than ideas and enthusiasm. Costs add up quickly: registration fees, parts, field elements, T-shirts, snacks, and sometimes hotel stays for out-of-state competitions. She adds: “Every year we need to buy parts, snacks, T-shirts, and with luck, hotel rooms for some of the longer competitions.” She adds that generous grants from the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering and donations from local groups like the Green Mountain Girls have all been essential.
But Rutins stresses that money isn’t the only vital resource that is necessary in order to run the team as smoothly as possible. “As much as we love when people generously contribute money, it’s not everything. Money will get us parts, but technical expertise is something that we know is out there but is hard for us to find. If there’s anybody out there with technical skills who wants to share them, we would love to hear from them. Even if parents aren’t technical, just showing up and helping … makes a difference.” She notes that new team members are accepted at any point during the season, and that more information is available through the team website:
The Manchester Machine Makers are entering the 2025–26 season with considerable momentum, and the fall kickoff event at the Manchester Community Library will be followed up in January with a Vermont FTC Qualifier Competition. Hosted by the Manchester Machine Makers and the Cookie Clickers, the regional qualifier event will be held at Mount Anthony Middle School on January 31, 2026. The Qualifier competition is one of several Qualifier Competitions throughout Vermont, which also include two separate events in Hinesburg (January 24, 2026) and in Northfield (February 15, 2026). Those events will lead up to the Vermont Regional Championship in South Burlington on March 7, 2026.
For Rutins, the rewards as a coach are clear. “Interacting with kids who are just really into learning, who are so open to exploration and solving these problems—that’s what it’s all about for me. I just love watching them go to competitions, cheering for other teams, and realizing they’re part of something bigger than themselves.”
The Cookie Clickers: Bennington’s Robotic Pioneers
While Manchester’s Machine Makers were the first FTC team in Bennington County, the Cookie Clickers quickly followed, launching in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. “We started in the middle of COVID,” recalls Chris Callahan, the team’s founding coach. “We began by meeting on Zoom, and we met for the first time in person that year during the week of Thanksgiving.”
The team grew out of a group of families looking for something hands-on during a time when school and extracurriculars had gone remote. With early support from the Bennington Area Makers, the Cookie Clickers began attracting students from Bennington, and also from nearby New York towns like Hoosick Falls and Cambridge. Callahan recalls that the early years were a study in resilience. “It was basically a ‘third space.’ In the middle of COVID, kids had school on Zoom and they had their life at home. This created something else: A space where kids developed different skills.”
The Cookie Clickers quickly made a mark, earning recognition at state events. Their robots have been ambitious, sometimes incorporating mechanisms that were powerful, yet challenging to control. One season’s oversized robotic arm was impressive, but somewhat problematic. Cookie Clickers team member, Callam Jomaa, elaborates: “It was really strong, but it was also very heavy. The center of mass would shift when the arm lifted, so instead of driving straight, the robot would curve. It threw off our odometry and made tuning really difficult.”
Rather than being discouraged, students leaned into the learning process. “Our overall experience was like watching a bus traveling along right next to the edge of a cliff,” head coach Peter Radocchia says with a laugh. “Somehow it stayed in control, but it was always that close to disaster. And yet, the kids kept problem-solving and kept it running.” That effort reflects FIRST’s concerted emphasis on persistence, as well as gracious professionalism. For the Cookie Clickers, those cultural values have shaped their identity as much as the robots themselves.
Jomaa’s fellow teammate, Eben Radocchia, added the following: “I enjoy working with like-minded people, as well as seeing a complex project through to completion. It’s very satisfying seeing everything working (mostly) in the end. I really liked learning how to program the spline paths. Those looked very cool, even if sometimes they weren’t consistent and gave us so many headaches.” Eben explains that “spline paths” are part of autonomous pathing, programming that allows the robot to move to certain positions on the field by itself. Cookie Clickers team member, Nolan Hunt, echoes that sentiment: “I enjoyed learning new things and having to change the way you think of mechanical problems to make the whole robot function together. One of the coolest things that I learned in my years on FTC was how to change the way I thought of problems and dealt with strategy.”
Callahan sees the biggest rewards not in trophies or awards, but in personal transformation. “For kids and parents who are new to FIRST Robotics, I always start with this: The biggest impact has nothing to do with robotics. It has everything to do with everything else. It gives kids a reason to work together on a hard technical project, to struggle through challenges, and to overcome setbacks along the way.”
UVM Extension: Support at Every Step
The role that University of Vermont (UVM) plays in Vermont youth robotics is both practical and deeply mission-driven. Their work in the FIRST community draws on their foundation as a land-grant university, which is dedicated to using their academic expertise to catalyze community impact. Through a formal partnership between the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and the College of Engineering & Mathematical Sciences (CEMS), UVM Extension/4-H serves as Vermont’s Program Delivery Organization for the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), coordinating the season statewide, training adults, and making sure events happen on time and on budget.
“UVM Extension exists to get our research out to the communities,” says Liz Kenton, an outreach professional with UVM Extension/4-H who supports STEM and agricultural workforce development. “We have offices around the state, and we serve the entire state.”
She explains that UVM’s relationship with FIRST grew from an institutional agreement designed to strengthen K-12 STEM outreach: “There was an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between CALS and CEMS for K–12 STEM outreach. CEMS wanted to strengthen their outreach to younger people. They wanted to get kids thinking about studying STEM at UVM and staying in state.” For Kenton, the link with 4-H was natural: “It aligns with 4-H, because we’re all about ‘learn by doing,’ experiential learning, and hands-on learning. The kids are building robots, but the robots are also building the kids.” She also noted the “team sport” nature of FIRST, adding that it offers “opportunities for everyone: CAD, CNC, programming and coding, or outreach and program management.”
Kenton explains that in Vermont, UVM is the Program Delivery Organization for the FIRST Tech Challenge. Practically, that means 4-H handles the statewide scaffolding: recruiting and onboarding coaches; providing youth-development best practices and safety screening; organizing and staffing qualifiers and the state championship; brokering resources and early access to parts; and convening coaches, mentors, and volunteers for training and peer skill-sharing. Teams do not have to be 4-H clubs to compete in FTC. Still, many choose that structure, because it allows them to welcome students from multiple schools and homeschools, and because 4-H can act as a fiscal agent. In doing so, they tap into 4-H’s youth-development framework while they build robots, as well as the skills that go with them.
When Kenton stepped into the role in 2021, she approached it like fieldwork. “I treated it like my Peace Corps service. I reached out to everybody I could find, convened regular meetings, kept notes, and followed through with volunteers and people from support organizations. It was all done with the aim of helping the statewide community grow stronger.” That coordination crystallized through the formation of a subsequent organization. Kenton elaborates: “After a while, it formed into a nonprofit: FIRST in Vermont.” FIRST in Vermont now serves as the Program Delivery Organization (PDO) for FIRST LEGO League (FLL) across the state. UVM serves as the PDO for FTC and New England FIRST is the PDO for FRC.
Kenton is candid about the economics: FLL has a lower barrier to entry; FTC has a larger requirement; FRC is the most resource-intensive. “FIRST LEGO League is a pretty low bar of entry. You can do a full team with pizza and T-shirts and robot parts and gas money for around $1,500 for a dozen kids. FTC is more like $2,000-$5,000 to run a team for a year. With FRC, the sky’s the limit.” That’s why statewide support matters. “We offer team support grants,” shares Kenton. “Coaches have told us that the grants make it possible for them to have a team.” UVM also steers families and coaches to FTC Hardship grants: “If a team talks to me, I recommend them for a hardship grant from FIRST if they’re not eligible for the new team grant.” She adds that when Vermont teams advance in competitions, things move quickly, and securing funding for travel can prove to be quite difficult. “The turnaround between knowing that you are eligible to go to a Premier event or the World Championships is around a week or two. We have built corporate partnerships that support advancement grants for team travel expenses.”
On the ground, UVM Extension plays a variety of roles that uplift the FIRST community in Vermont. Kenton elaborates: “It comes down to outreach, making sure coaches are supported, and giving youth opportunities to apply STEM skills through activities like this competition. We also hope to bring more campus-based researchers into the conversation, such as people who are studying robotics in fine detail, so students can see how their work connects to real-world applications.” The UVM CALS–CEMS partnership also fuels adjacent programs, such as summer science educators, undergraduate mentors, and coach training, which integrate real-world academic research and positive youth development.
The operational backbone is strong, as are the results: “Kids learn to ‘fail better’ through the program,” says Kenton. “If your robot breaks down at a tournament, it’s pretty normal that other teams will lend you parts or advice or help you reprogram it.” The way Kenton sees it, the payoff reaches far beyond the season. “These kids are miles ahead at being work-ready and good at teamwork,” notes Kenton, adding that colleges and employers recognize it. “There are scholarships at a lot of universities that specifically focus on FIRST alumni.” She cites a favorite line from a colleague: “FIRST is the only sport where every kid can go pro.”
FIRST in Vermont: Building a Statewide Network
While UVM provides the infrastructure for Vermont’s FTC programs through Vermont 4-H, the statewide nonprofit, FIRST in Vermont, has become the essential framework behind youth robotics programs across all age levels. Founded in 2022, it has grown rapidly into a multipurpose organization that creates access, secures funding, forges partnerships, and ensures that robotics opportunities reach students in every corner of the state.
“Initially, the organizers of FIRST in Vermont were active coaches and supporters within the state in various different roles,” explains Mark Drapa, Board President. “I think there was a recognition that in order to reach the next level of growth and to provide the teams with the support they needed, there had to be some more for malization around it.” With incorporation and a board of directors in place, the focus of their efforts sharpened. “We focused on four specific things,” Drapa says. “We needed to become financially stable. We needed to create access for all of our students. We were looking for integration into curriculums within Vermont, and we wanted to tap into the education space and support all of the mentors and teams.”
Today, that mission has expanded into sustaining a network that is bigger and more vibrant than ever. “After our third year under that vision, we refined it, focusing on high quality experiences for all of our stakeholders,” Drapa continues. “We started off with two competition events per year, and we are now hosting 10 events this year, which are held all across the state. Those are major STEM events with hundreds of participants at each of them. What our organization is trying to do is make this sustainable, so that the machinery of STEM is available to every student in our state, even if you’re living in an underserved area.”
Joseph Chase, Executive Director of FIRST in Vermont, echoes that sentiment, adding that the heart of the organization is rooted in both inclusion and sustainability. “What FIRST In Vermont has done is build a network where there are events that students look forward to going to in addition to the official regional and international FIRST competitions. It’s a really friendly kind of competition, and it’s a safe space for students who are looking for something very inclusive. This is a sport where it doesn’t matter how fast you run or how high you jump. Everybody can find a role, even if it’s not necessarily a STEM-oriented aspect. A lot of teams will have students who focus on the business side of things, on communication, on the graphical representations, or what their team marketing looks like.”
That inclusivity dovetails with an ambitious workforce development vision. “Now that we have this big network, we have focused on building partnerships with businesses and manufacturers across Vermont.” Instead of internships centered around individual, short-term student internships with businesses or manufacturers, entire teams now partner with Vermont-based businesses over longer periods of time. Chase adds: “It’s a pipeline for businesses and manufacturers to develop their workforce. And that is really what gets Mark and I up in the morning: This new, 21st-century STEM workforce development model.”
The partnerships have already resulted in powerful moments and stories. Drapa highlighted the iBots of Rutland, an FRC team who have partnered with General Electric (GE). According to Drapa, GE engineers mentor students in CAD design, coding, and project management. Their collaboration helped propel the iBots to the FRC World Championship finals. In Burlington, Green Mountain Robotics works with GlobalFoundries and Hazelett Strip-Casting. Drapa shares that the students’ CAD work was so professional that Hazelett considered them for summer engineering projects. At the youngest level, Vermont’s FIRST LEGO League Championship now takes place at GlobalFoundries in Essex Junction, Vermont’s largest employer. “The other 364 days of the year, nobody’s getting past the GlobalFoundries gates,” Chase said with a smile. “But, for that one day, the gates open and thousands of students, coaches, and parents flood GlobalFoundries. They receive big medallions with GlobalFoundries on the lanyard, and they wear them all day long. They come in already being celebrated as winners in STEM.” Drapa shares that invaluable support has been provided to FIRST in Vermont by The Argosy Foundation, their founding and sustaining sponsor. He adds that GlobalFoundries is the presenting sponsor of FIRST Lego League in Vermont.
Drapa, who works at GlobalFoundries, says that the impact of the event flows both ways. “At GlobalFoundries last year, our employees put in over 1,500 hours of mentoring with local teams. The students who are working with those mentors now recognize what career paths are available to them, and they are building durable relationships with Vermont employers.” Financially, FIRST in Vermont invests deeply in making participation possible.
“We start teams. That’s what we do,” says Drapa. “We also provide sustaining support to FRC teams. Our grants this year are totaling around $45,000, and even that amount leaves significant unmet demand.” Beyond cash, FIRST in Vermont provides coach meetings, peer-to-peer mentoring, and training in outreach, fundraising, and community engagement. Chase adds: “For most of the teams, outreach is the most fun part of what they do. Robotics teams are marching in parades with floats, building shirt cannons, showing up at farmers’ markets. They’re active in their communities.”
The growth numbers reflect that success. This season, Vermont will host 114 teams across all three levels, including 75 FLL teams, 25 FTC teams, and 14 FRC teams, with more than 1,000 student participants.
Looking ahead, both Chase and Drapa emphasize the continued importance of STEM youth programs in Vermont, especially in terms of workforce retention. “We know that 95% of our STEM-oriented high school seniors are leaving Vermont and they’re not coming back,” says Chase. “We want that workforce to come back. We want them to know they have a chance at high-paying STEM jobs here in Vermont, and that they can enjoy great quality of life.” He cites an example of a former student who left Vermont to find work in a high-powered STEM field, but returned to Vermont to join Burlington-based aerospace manufacturer, BETA Technologies, because of quality-of-life priorities.
For Drapa, the impact of FIRST in Vermont is equal-parts cultural and economic. “I’ve seen this program be transformational for our communities. It opens up a different way of thinking. When students fail 99 times in a row and succeed once, they talk about their success. They don’t talk about the 99 failures that got them there. The perseverance is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” The way he sees it, the outcomes are clear: “This is the only sport that leads directly to employment pathways – even if people don’t choose to go to college. We have highly skilled technical jobs that FIRST students can walk directly into, head and shoulders above other applicants, because of what they’ve learned through the program.” The work done by FIRST in Vermont is not just about preparing participants for tournaments or competition – nor is it only about fun and engaging kickoff events like the annual GlobalFoundries FLL State Champtionship or the FTC kickoff event at Manchester Community Library. At the heart of the program, FIRST builds bridges between Vermont’s young minds and its future.