Nuts, bolts and gears will help fly students of the Nanakuli High and Intermediate School Robotics Team to the VEX World Competition in Dallas in late April.

The Robotics Program started in 2007 under the direction of Richard Enright. The team was successful, placing third in the state finals that year.

The team has gone through various challenges. One of them was raising enough money for them to participate in the various competitions as well as to cover the cost to take the students to Dallas.

Enright said, “;The biggest challenge is raising money. We're roughly $5,000 to $7,000 short of our goal to go to Dallas. We have two fundraisers coming up. We think that'll get us really close to our goal. However, we're still looking for more corporate sponsors.”;

This competition is important to Enright and the participating students. Their reasoning, however, differed.

Freshman Jahn Kahele-Fontanilla said, “;I just want to help our reputation of Nanakuli, bring it into a brighter view, stop the view from being so bad.”;

Freshman Aleigurah Aipoalani-Scanlan said some of the things she wants to gain are teamwork, closeness and an introduction to the robotics world.

Enright said one of the things the students need to learn is how to work as a team with other students. Enright feels this is difficult to teach students in the classroom.

“;The other thing they're going to have to learn is to evaluate other teams,”; Enright said. “;They have to pick their partners, and they need to pick partners that are not necessarily their friends, but partners that work well with their robot's capability.”;

The team is schedule to depart on April 28 and return on May 5.

For more information, call Enright at 668-5823.