A few of our Members had a very interesting afternoon visiting Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Faversham the other day - during which they got an update from F1 in Schools team "Eclipse".
As regular readers will know, the team (who we've helped support from the outset) are the current F1 in Schools National Champions and will be going forward to the World Championships to be held in Singapore later this year.
It's an incredibly busy time for the three-person team (Tom, Evie and Javier) - not only do they have studies and important exams coming up, but they have to design and build a new car to the latest specifications (which they are currently waiting to receive from the organisers) and develop a new pit display. Most importantly, they need to raise funds to attend the final.*
It was lovely to see pictures and trophies won by the team as we were taken to our meeting - and also see pictures of their predecessors, Team "Evolve" (who we also helped to support). Head of the Creative Arts and Technology Faculty, Phil Harvey, kindly gave us updates on those past team members; we were delighted to hear that George, who received an F1 in Schools scholarship to study at UCL (University College London), is now on a placement year with Red Bull while Lewis is now on a placement year with Aston Martin. Both of these are Formula 1 teams and both are highly competitive; George and Lewis were selected from thousands of applicants to get those coveted spots.
Evie and Javier from Eclipse gave us an excellent presentation titled "Innovative Engineering for the Future". They showed us how their cars have developed over time and gave us a synopsis of their activities to date, interspersed with videos of races and wins! We also learned about the intricacies of the judging and the various award categories. As well as activities related to the competition, the youngsters have also welcomed over 300 primary school children to the school to get a taste of F1 in Schools through the Primary STEM project.
While at the school our Members were also introduced to a group of 'A' level students who were working on architectural design projects as well as their entries for our Innovation Competition. We had the pleasure of hearing two of the students - Maddie and Ed - do a provisional presentation of ideas; we also had the chance to talk 1:1 with other students about their work.
"We had a wonderful time visiting the school," said Rotarian Julie Reza, "it's always so refreshing to hear from the youngsters themselves and find out about the things that inspire and drive them; we also know that interacting with us helps the youngsters with their confidence and presentation skills".
*WOULD YOU, YOUR BUSINESS OR ORGANIZATION LIKE TO HELP SPONSOR TEAM ECLIPSE so that they can represent the UK at the World F1 in Schools Finals?
Click here to find out more about supporting the team.
Individuals can also support the team directly via the team's GoFundMe campaign - you can get details of this from their webesite (which also links to their social media platforms) here.
Picture: The car design used in the National Finals. Picture credit: Team Eclipse/Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Faversham.
