Coaches/Lead Mentors
Bob Silva
Bob Silva joined the EHS Robotics team in 2011 as the programming mentor for the NASA / MIT Zero Robotics Competition. With his help, the team reached 14th place in the nation, narrowly missing the cut to actually fly their code on the International Space Station. Mr. Silva then continued on as a programming mentor for the 2012 FRC Competition but has also widened his scope to assist as a strategy mentor, integration adviser and a leadership / organizational coach.
Mr. Silva works as a Software Developer at a local company. Being a kid at heart, he enjoys flying kites and radio-controlled helicopters. He is also very proud of his two sons, Trevor and Dylan, as they participate on the team as a mentor and co-captain of the team.
As of the 2012 – 13 season, Mr. Silva has assumed the role of Head Coach. Here’s what he has to say about that:
“It’s a pleasure and an honor working with the young people of the Evergreen Robotics Team. They are an amazing group with passion, drive, ingenuity and integrity. As Head Coach, all I need do is provide overall guidance and direction and they work out all the details. It’s very rewarding to watch these students learn and grow as they figure out what they are truly able to do with their minds and their skills. I highly encourage anyone considering becoming a mentor to do so. It’s an experience you’ll find nowhere else.”
Teri Stuart Wegmann
Teri started her FIRST career in 2001 as the coach of her daughters Girl Scout Troop’s FIRST Lego League (FLL) team. After three years of FLL, her troop had aged out and wanted another challenge, so they decided to start a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team. The Green Grinches Team 1624 was the first Girl Scout Troop in the world to be a FRC team.
In 2007, the girls graduated from high school and were unable to find another troop to take over where they left off. However, they could not let FRC participation end in SW Washington, so they worked hard to start The Green Wrenches in the Evergreen School District to carry on the FRC tradition.
In doing so, their efforts earned them The Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting.
Although Teri retired from Girl Scouts in 2007 (after 25 years of being a Girl Scout Troop leader for her two daughters), she wanted to make sure the program would continue to thrive in the Evergreen School District. Therefore, she volunteered to remain as a mentor and consultant for the new team. In addition to working directly with the FRC team, Teri also initiated the Evergreen Robotics Booster Club to handle the fund raising and finances for the FRC teams. She was also able to get the Booster Club approved as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Teri says she keeps coming back every year because of how the program transforms the students. By the end of their first season, students who would never speak in public have a new sense of confidence and they are so excited about what they are doing that they can talk to anyone with ease.
Even though she is a Commercial Loan Processor in the Commercial Banking department at Riverview Community Bank, Teri believes engineering is in her blood. Her father has been an engineering salesman throughout his 50+ year career at places like Cessna and BorgWarner. Additionally, her brother was a mechanical engineer and her youngest daughter graduated from WSU in Pullman, WA (class of 2012) as a mechanical engineer.
When Teri was growing up, not many girls did this kind of work and society had much stricter guidelines as to what was considered an acceptable career path for women. This is why Teri feels so strongly about getting girl students involved in the robotics program.
Her motto is “Whoever said ‘May the best man win’ never asked a GIRL to play!”
Mentors
Matt Driggers
Matt is a mechanical mentor for the team. In his day job, Matt is a mechanical engineer who designs and tests ink jet printer systems and parts for Hewlett Packard. Educating via actually building and doing things with science, math, and engineering is a strong value he holds. To help supplement students’ classroom experiences, Matt has been a long time volunteer with Washington Science Olympiad and nConnect (high school mentoring program) in addition to having volunteered time with FIRST Lego League (FLL) and FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) tournaments. Matt has lead workshops on safety, prototyping, and tool use for FRC. Matt has been involved with Team 2517 since its founding.
Keith W. Wegmann
Keith has been involved in the FIRST program as a mentor of the First Lego League (FLL) team Green Grinches from 2001-2004. When the Green Grinches aged out of FLL he stayed with the team and assisted them in making the transition to compete in FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The Green Grinches (Team 1624) competed in FRC from 2005 to 2007. The Green Grinches retired (aged out) from competition at the end of the 2007, but not before establishing a new team at Evergreen High School the Green Wrenches. He has continued to volunteer his time as a mentor for the Green Wrenches Team 2517 since its inception in 2008 and look forward to continuing as a mentor for the foreseeable future.
Margaret Milem
Margaret Milem has been involved with The Green Wrenches for the last three years as a parent and secretary of the Booster Club. This year, she is the school adviser for the team. She works as a math teacher at Covington Middle School. She says that the best part of FIRST Robotics is seeing the students develop friendships and develop their skills and self confidence. Her life motto is “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; learn from them!”
Jean Oh
The Great Jean Oh works at Boeing as manufacturing engineer and this is her second year as a mentor of the Evergreen Robotics team. She is the project management mentor and her expectations are to learn how to work with crazy ideas and make them a reality all the while working as a team. She’s really excited to see the product of all the hard work. And… GO HUSKIES!!!! (:
Thomas Gibb
Thomas Gibb joined the Green Wrenches mentors because of his grandchildren, Tyler and Olea, asked him to. He also wanted to contribute his skills that he knows the Robotics team needs and wanted to help out. Also, his employers, Intel, wanted volunteers to help out; every hour volunteers put in, Intel will donate $10. He works as a software developer at Intel. He was also a Navy veteran, he served for 20 years before retiring 29 years ago. During his free time, he likes to research and program computers; he also teaches amateur radio at a local college, and he’s the vice president of OARS, Olympia Amateur Radio Society. His favorite thing about FIRST is the stimulation is provides students, the encouragement for math and science, and how it broadens the students capabilities and skills. He is program mentor in the team. One thing he learned for the Navy was to always keep busy and to do something productive with your life. He has 11 kids and 34 grand kids.
Life Motto: “Never get through a day without learning something new”
Tim Lutz
Tim is employed with Clark Public Utilities as a utility mechanic and this is his second year as a mentor. His son Austin is on the team and encouraged Tim to join as a mentor to share his 20+ years of hands-on experience. Tim enjoys sharing his knowledge with anyone who wants to learn and wishes to help the team not only build a great robot, but also learn valuable life skills in the process.
Christian Kaneen
Mr. Christian Kaneen is a math and engineering teacher at Covington Middle School. He has been involved with FIRST for six years, the first year acting as a mentor and last year as the head coach. His favorite thing about FIRST is the opportunities it gives students to work with real life problems and to have the option of being able to apply math and science in a fun and educational way.
Life Motto: “To work hard, and enjoy your accomplishments”
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Jakki Lundquist
Jakki became a mentor during the build season of 2011-2012 when her son, master of CAD, joined the team. What she does is mentor for the marketing team, coordinate the fundraising, and is a board member. During the day Jakki works at Plastics NorthWest as an operations manager. She thinks FIRST is a wonderful program for kids, she helped the marketing team get the Chairmans award last year and she likes to sell the kids at events.
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Jon Beam
Jon became a mentor this build year when his son Marshal was convinced to join the team by Dylan. He does not mentor for any team but does watch out for new rule changes as well as know them inside and out. His day job is as an IT person at Kaiser Permanente. The only random thing about Jon is that he really loves college football.
Ron Lilienthal
Ron is a new mentor for the electrical team that became a mentor this build year when his son Ryan also joined as a freshman looking for something to do. During the day he works as an Operation Specialist for the city of Portland. Ron is glad to report that there has yet to be any electrocutions within the electrical team. He also loves music in general and having fun at competition.
