F1 in Schools: Penrith students finish fifth at world finals
A team of Year 10 students from Penrith Christian School has returned from a successful trip to the F1 in Schools World Finals in Abu Dhabi.
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A team of Year 10 students from Penrith Christian School said the experience of competing in the F1 in Schools World Finals has given them “great opportunities”.
Imogen Rogers, Paige Foley, Alexander Weeks, Brock Stinson and Caleb Kraus, combined with students from Cessnock to finish fifth at the largest STEM competition for high school students in the world in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The team, ‘Ascension’, won the best-designed car award to cap off an 18-month journey.
F1 in Schools requires teams to build an F1 company from scratch.
They must design and build a scale car, but also build the brand through marketing and sponsorship.
The team finished in the top three at regionals, states and nationals before combining with the team from Cessnock before the world finals.
Imogen, the team leader, said the competition was a “rollercoaster of emotions”.
“Your highs feel so high, but your lows feel really low,” she said.
“At the end of the day though, you can sit back and realise all of the things you’ve achieved.
“I’ve learned to be proud of my achievements, which is something I struggled with before.
“It’s taught me to be loud, proud, and show off my skills.”
As head of marketing Paige said the competition had provided her with amazing opportunities.
“I’ve been able to make great connections within the industry,” she said.
“We’ve been offered jobs and open offers of work experience positions.
“I’ve learned great people skills, my communication skills are better, and I think everyone’s time-management skills have increased.”
As the engineers, Brock and Caleb were both offered positions at the Williams F1 Team Unilever Engineering Academy, a program that takes 10 students from around the world.
“We managed to win the best-engineered car award, which is considered the most prestigious award outside of the podium,” Brock said.
“This competition has taught me how to deal with stress – I think it’ll be a long time before something stresses me out like this, so it definitely prepared me well for life in that regard.
“It was also really cool to make new friends overseas. It was surreal to be able to say ‘I’ll just go hang out with my friends from Brazil, or Ireland’.”
Alexander said he was proud of what the team had achieved.
“It’s taken us a year-and-a-half to get here on our first attempt at this competition,” he said.
“Yes, we’ve had some mentors along the way, but it was amazing that five of us had made it.
“To place fifth on our first attempt, we’re all so proud.”