Creating opportunities: Event showcases elementary and high school robotics teams

By Sue Loughlin | Tribune-Star Mar 13, 2026

Fifth grader Cora Wiencken, 11, of the DeVaney Elementary FIRST LEGO League Robotics Team takes a closer look at her team's robot during the Vigo County Education Foundation's Business & Bagels breakfast Friday at the VCSC Administration Building in West Terre Haute.
​Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza

The Vigo County School Corp. showcased robotics opportunities for elementary and high school students Friday during a Vigo County Education Foundation Business & Bagels program.
Those attending the event at the VCSC administration building heard presentations from the high school Area 5188 FIRST Indiana robotics team and DeVaney Elementary’s FIRST LEGO League team.
North Vigo student and Area 5188 team member Katie Henthorn explained that each year, the team gets a completely different design challenge and has six weeks to design, build and program a 120-pound industrial-style robot.
In competition, high school teams — in alliance with other teams — play difficult field games with the robots.
While VCSC teachers and Rose-Hulman professors provide supervision, “We are mentored exclusively by Rose-Hulman students. For me that was game changing,” Henthorn said.
She worked with Katie Collins, a North Vigo and Rose-Hulman graduate, who has inspired her to pursue computer engineering in college.
Henthorn said Area 5188 is among the few programs in the state that is free and open to all VCSC students. Most schools charge fees that start at about $1,000 to participate for a year, which for many students would be a financial barrier, she said.
“We want it to be as inclusive as possible,” she said.
According to Issac Turner, Area 5188 robotics team coach, the program is supported through the school district, Rose-Hulman, grants, fundraising and the Vigo County Education Foundation.
“It’s an expensive program, but so worth it,” Turner said. Currently, the program has 29 participants, including one VCSC online student. It is also open to Vigo County home schooled students. 
Increasing awareness about Vigo County robotics programs is important, he said.“I think this is such a phenomenal program. I want more people in Vigo County to understand we have some really strong robotic programs and I want it to keep growing,” Newton said.
The high school students are learning skills that prepare them for a range of careers that include machine work, fabrication, coding, automation and networking, to name a few, he said.
“It produces phenomenal thinkers, workers and team players,” Turner said.
Also speaking was Area 5188 team member and North Vigo student Lucy Ellis, who is the team’s strategist and communications lead.
“It’s so much more than robots,” she said. “It is such a valuable opportunity and such a character building experience.”
She joined her junior year, even though, “I have never been great at STEM. I’m not a science or math person … I thought I would have no place on this team.”
While she didn’t believe she could help much with robots, she knew she did have skills at talking to people and selling a pitch.
Ellis got more involved and found she loved her role as strategist. “It was an amazing learning process to go into that high stress, high adrenaline environment that is competition,” she said.
Her role is to develop strategy based on all teams in competition to ensure best results in the final matches.
Ellis said her participation helped her figure out her career path. “I’ve learned that I really love business and getting to pitch ideas to other people,” she said.
She plans to major in marketing with a focus on business strategy at Indiana State University starting this fall.
At the elementary level, DeVaney Elementary is in its second year of having a robotics program, and this is the first year for competition.
This year, the DeVaney FIRST LEGO League team won an innovation project award at semi-state competition and also qualified for and competed at state competition.
It now has a robotics pipeline with three programs:
• LEGO Explore Club for grades 2-3, an introduction to robotics, team work and simple builds.
• First Lego League Challenge, grades 4-5. It involves designing robots, programming, solving real-world problems and competition.
• The third is aerial drone competition team for grades 4 and 5.
Whitney Beck, fifth grade teacher and program adviser, said the children are learning critical thinking, conducting research and building communication skills
With their projects, they have to be able to defend their ideas and research and explain how a project can impact the community, she said.
“For many of the students, it’s the first time they’ve done something like that, and they definitely rose to the challenge,” Beck said.
The three programs also create a pipeline that prepares them for Area 5188.
“We want to create as many stem-based opportunities for our students as possible,” Beck said. She thanked those who have supported the program, including the district, VCEF and the community.
At the conclusion of the presentation, Superintendent Chris Himsel told those attending, “Do you see why I’m so optimistic about our future?”
“Our purpose is to develop the talent and nurture the creativity for each learner” and to challenge them “to go further than they ever thought possible,” he said.
It’s about creating opportunities, he said, something the education foundation is able to do with support from the community.
Among the goals of the district facilities plan and proposed reorganization is to have buildings “that support what we are talking about instead of getting in the way and creating obstacles,” he said.
Sue Loughlin can be reached at 812-231-4235 or at [email protected]. Follow Sue on X at @TribStarSue.

Katie Henthorn and Brighid O'Toole of the Area 5188: Classified Robotics FIRST Indiana Robotics Team prepare the team's robot for display during the Vigo County Education Foundation's Business & Bagels on Friday at the VCSC Administration Building in West Terre Haute.
Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza