BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School (BuffSci) Buff Sci-Borgs Robotics Team has advanced to the State Finals of the NY Excelsior FIRST Tech Challenge. The team competed on Sunday, February 11 in the FIRST Robotics Corning Qualifier against 21 other teams across New York State and advanced to the State Finals, which are taking place at Mohawk Community College in
Utica, N.Y. on Sunday, March 3.

The Buff Sci-Borgs is a diverse group composed entirely of seniors who are all planning to pursue STEM majors in college. At the Corning Qualifier, the students received the Connect Award, a judged award that is given to the team that most connects with their local science, technology, engineering, and
math community.

The NY Excelsior FIRST Tech Challenge community of robotics teams proudly encompasses all of New York State except New York City and Long Island. Students in the FIRST Tech Challenge learn to think like engineers; teams design, build, and code robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Robots are built from a reusable platform, powered by Android technology, and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming.

The Team was able to attend the Corning Qualifier due to the generosity of the Corning Enderbots, who sponsored the Buff Sci-Borgs at the event, demonstrating one of the core values of FIRST Robotics in gracious professionalism, helping another team despite teams being direct competitors.

“This is a unique opportunity for our students, most teams are from larger districts or private schools with substantially more funding for these types of extracurricular activities. The support from the community in Buffalo and Corning shows that charter schools and the families they serve can compete
on the same level,” says Douglas Borzynski, District STEM Coordinator. “This is a student driven competition and the students have consistently shown their commitment to this Team and sport. When given the challenge of funding their trip to State Finals, they took the initiative to garner support from the community without assistance from myself and the other advisors. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the Corning Enderbots team for their embodiment of the FIRST Robotics values and assisting a fellow team in making it this far. I am proud of this team and all they have already accomplished, as I look forward to cheering them on in March at the State Championships.”

In order to attend the State Finals, the students on the Buff Sci-Borgs created a GoFundMe campaign and met their goal of $2,000 in less than 24 hours. After increasing their goal to $3,000 for additional competition expenses and registration, it was additionally met and the GoFundMe campaign was closed. The overwhelming support of this team and the ability for BuffSci to continue, is a true positive story of
community and the power of connecting with people.

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About the Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School: Buffalo Academy of Science is a tuition-free, college-preparatory charter school teaching students in a diverse community to be successful in a globally-oriented environment, using innovative and dynamic teaching methods with a small student to teacher ratio.

About FIRST Robotics:
FIRST® inspires young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication and leadership.