Team 2152/Woody Flowers Award nomination - Ms. Urquhart

TEAM 2152 Nominee

Mrs. Dru Urquhart

Acadamy of Information Technology and Robotics Spruce Creek High School Port Orange, FL 32128

Woodie Flowers Finalist Award nomination

How did the candidate inspire your team throughout this process?

We would like to nominate Mrs. Dru Urquhart for the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.

Mrs. Urquhart is the reason Team S*M*A*S*H has time, motivation and background knowledge to work on our robot. She did what no one thought was possible: she motivated for, established and leads a school within a school, where students don’t have to worry about following bell schedules and being cut off from their work. This small school is known as the Academy of Information Technology and Robotics. Our subjects are paired with Challenges that we tackle, integrating such different areas as Math and Social Studies, English and Technology. Team S*M*A*S*H has become one of our Challenges that is integrated into the rest of our day.

With robotics there are many ups and downs, and levels of knowledge. Mrs. Urquhart reassures new students when they jump into the deep end with the more experienced. In pushing us all to muddle in together, she ensures that we work together to learn from each other’s successes and failures. She encourages us to communicate with other teams, especially through Chief Delphi, to learn from things they have accomplished. “We can’t make all of the mistakes,” she tells us constantly.

When we have our successes, Mrs. Urquhart is there with the same excitement as all of us students congratulating us and telling us to feed off of that excitement, to continue to greater things. But when we are uninspired, she’s there telling us to keep our heads high, pushing us to do just a little bit more research, forcing us to come to a conclusion to fix our problems.

Every day before we get to work she sits us all down and explains the goals for the day. She works hard to determine our goals by checking on our building process at the end of every day, then setting goals for our progress on the next so we won’t fall behind.

Mrs. Urquhart has inspired Team S*M*A*S*H throughout the challenge. Telling us we should never give up, no matter what; no matter how many broken motors or chains don’t quite fit; no matter if the programming just isn’t right. She never gives up and makes wonders happen. She is there to motivate us and push us through. She is there telling us to hold our heads high and tackle any challenge that comes our way. Her example, her knowledge, her enthusiasm and her vision make her the motivator of Team S*M*A*S*H.

That is why we nominate her for the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.