The Otternaut is on a 30-by-30-inch drive base, has a rotating arm and was built with sustainability in mind. The robot, in some ways simple compared to others it competes against, has landed the Santa Catalina School’s robotics team a spot in the FIRST Robotics World Championship in Houston next week.

FIRST, which stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” is a nonprofit organization that offers programs and competitions for PreK-12th grade. Every year, the C-Otters code, design and build a new 130-pound robot to compete against other FIRST Robotics Competition teams. This is the furthest the team has made it in the competition since the C-Otters were founded in 2017.

“We kind of made it our personal mission to try to restart this program,” said head coach Dale Yocum.

“The girls have gone from not really knowing how to drill a hole to being able to design a robot and build a robot from scratch. I didn’t really expect that it would happen this fast. In my old team, this was like a multi-year project but here, they were just on it.”

As competitive as FIRST is, the organization also places an emphasis on teamwork above all, said Amani Macleod, a sophomore and the team’s mechanical manager.

“It’s really about being kind and gracious to other teams and helping out as you can,” said Macleod. “It’s a very warm and welcoming environment.”

A co-curricular option provided to the students of the Catholic all-girls school, every student can join and take on a leadership position.“I think what really prompted me to be part of the leadership group on the team and helped grow the team to what it is today, is going through competition and really experiencing and talking to the other students and mentors from across the world and in California,” said Yunah Baek, a junior and the team captain.

Speaking with other students and coaches involved in the same robotics competitions inspired Baek to help take her team to the next level, she said.

Last year the C-otters had around eight people on the team and has since more than doubled to 17. Despite this growth spurt, the team is still an underdog seeing as most teams they compete against have around 50-60 people on them.

Being a smaller team has only motivated the C-otters. They are one of 600 teams to make it to the world championships and one of three teams this year that come from all-girls schools.

“It’s really attributable to just how hard the girls worked this year,” said Yocum. “They were here every day and on Saturdays making this thing happen.” Instead of overworking the Otternaut, the team focused on a few of its core capabilities and perfected them, which has gotten them further than they thought possible. The team also focused on sustainability with the Otternaut, reusing parts from old robots, using wood instead of plastic materials and scouring their campus for materials that could be used to build the robot. Their efforts earned them this year’s FIRST sustainability award.

Being on the robotics team has provided the girls far more than technical and engineering skills, they said. They’ve learned how to network, communicate and delegate.

“These are the tools that you’re going to need when you’re growing up, when you’re adulting,” said Seline Sakiz, a senior and the C-Otters’ marketing director. “And these are just kind of all the things that you learn in robotics that you need to prepare yourself for in the future.”

The girls have also had some personal insights because of the team.

“The team helped me find a place where I’m comfortable and really enjoyed being with the community that I’m in,” said Debra Wachira, a junior and the team’s software manager.

The journey to the World Championships for the C-Otters has been long and rewarding. Their Sacramento game day in March left them ranked third out of 34 regional teams. Most recently, they showed off the Otternaut at the Contra Costa Regional competition where the team finished 11th out of 40 teams.

“The whole time leading up to the announcement that we qualified, we were just kind of like, ‘how is this happening?’” said Macleod. “Anything that I could have hoped for for the team is happening right now, and so that is really cool to get to be a part of.”

“We’re in the same league as these really big Silicon Valley teams, which is really mind boggling to me,” said Sakiz.

As one of a handful of all-girls teams to compete in these competitions, the C-Otters know what it’s like to be underestimated. At times, even while having other teams or coaches talk down to them, their eye has always been on the prize — not necessarily a trophy, but representing young girls in STEM. The team is involved with m.e. FIRST, an initiative started by a competition team made up of Girl Scouts, which advocates for menstrual equity. As ambassadors, the C-Otters help make menstrual products accessible at their competition sites in an attempt to destigmatize menstruation. Seeing how much they can achieve has “helped us kind of build our sisterhood and build our community,” said Wachira.

This sense of sisterhood goes beyond their own team. Some of the team’s favorite memories are speaking to and competing with other girls at competitions, they said. “We were playing with another all-girls team, and we were up against a world champion team and we were predicted to have an 11% chance of winning the match,” said Wachira.

Baek and the other team’s drive coach “strategized the heck” out of the match. With only 11% odds, the all-girls teams won the game.