Clarkston Robotics makes a trip to the White House

     The other night while shooting photos of the Clarkston graduation, they had many points of pride from various speakers. One that stood out was their invite to the White House this past week.  Many  of the robotics programs in Oakland County are stellar and for Clarkston HS, a visit to the World Championships gave them an outstanding 8th place finish. While eighth place does not usually give you an audience with the President, they received a special award and this award gave them the trip to Washington D.C.. Matt Pasco was singled out by the President in particular according to Dr. Rod Rock, the Clarkston superintendent for the Wolves work at promoting STEM programs in particular. While it is a point of pride for Clarkston, it just goes to show Clarkston, Oakland Schools and Oakland County is moving in the right direction for our student engineering minds throughout the OC. Lara Mossa's story talks about their visit to the White House and the link to the paper follows the story.

Clarkston High School students meet President Obama

Two Clarkston High School students, Courtney Hughes, 16, and Matt Pasco, 17, met President Barack Obama. Photo from wh.gov

By Lara Mossa, The Oakland Press

Posted: 06/03/14, 1:46 PM EDT | Updated: 54 secs ago

Courtney Hughes and Matt Pasco, both Clarkston High School students, entering the gate into the White House. Submitted by Kyle Hughes.

CLARKSTON >> Two Clarkston High School students experienced a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when they met and shook President Barack Obama’s hand at the White House..
Courtney Hughes, 16, a junior from Ortonville, and Matt Pasco, 17, a graduating senior from Clarkston, represented the school robotics squad, Team RUSH.
“The fact that the kids got to do that was amazing,” said Kyle Hughes, a math and technology teacher and Team RUSH coach. “Courtney was excited, because she got to pet the president’s dog.”
Courtney Hughes is Kyle Hughes daughter and one of the team captains; Pasco is the team’s lead programmer.
Team RUSH, which stands for Respect, Unity, Spirit and Heart, won 11 awards this year among five competitions in the Michigan FIRST robotics league including a win in the state championships in April. Through the national program FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), students design and develop remote-controlled robots that battle each other in an arena setting. The Clarkston team advanced to the World Championships in St. Louis, Mo., and finished in the top eight in the world in the district’s division, Hughes said.

To read the rest of the story, click the link below.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/social-affairs/20140603/clarkston-high-school-students-meet-president-obama