Team Leaders,

MSHSL Qualifying Points
We’ve gotten the now known bugs out of the qualifying points system for the State Championship and the version is posted (https://mnfirst.org/docs/2017/Week1_v2.pdf).  Again if you have questions, please send them to StateRankings@mnfirst.org

Robot Day at the Works Museum

The Works Museum’s mission is to inspire the next generation of innovators, engineers, and creative problem solvers.  They are looking for teams to participate in their Robot Day event on Saturday, April 8th, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. They realize that this is the date of the Minneapolis regionals but are still hoping some teams that will not be participating in competition that day will bring their robots to the Museum.  They love having FRC there and recognize the unfortunate timing.  You can visit the event page here: https://www.theworks.org/robot-day/

If your team would like to participate, please e-mail Kit Wilhite to confirm at kit@theworks.org.  She will then follow up with more details.

Scholarships for your Alumni from the MN High Tech Association:

Greetings! We want to send a reminder about the approaching deadline for the scholarship applications. We want to remind you to pass on the word about this great opportunity before the deadline on Saturday, April 1!

We are currently accepting applications for the Minnesota High Tech Association Foundation (MHTF) Scholarship. The scholarships are for Minnesota undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. These awards range from $2,500 to $5,000 awards and can include internship opportunities at MHTA member companies. MHTF supports diversity in this application and award process.

We also have Named Scholarships in specific areas supported by our generous sponsors. We expect to provide scholarships again this year in Computer Science, STEM Education, Data Science, Women in STEM, Underrepresented Populations in STEM and Women in Computer Science. In addition, this year we are still looking to add a scholarship for Military Veterans. We encourage you to let students know of these additional and exceptional opportunities.

Eligibility requirements:
Must be pursuing an undergraduate degree in a STEM field or in STEM teaching
Only students with sophomore through senior academic status in the current school year may apply. Sophomore status may include students who have achieved this status through advanced placement (AP) credit or post-secondary options (PSEO)s
Applicants must be enrolled at an accredited, Minnesota-based higher education institution.
Scholarships will be awarded in the fall term of 2017 and presented to recipients at MHTA’s Tekne Awards in November. Students must be enrolled at time of award.

Special Circumstances
In addition to traditional STEM fields, health science majors whose studies will NOT lead to participation in direct patient care are welcome to apply.
The scholarship is open to international students, but preference is given to students who intend to work in Minnesota after graduation.
Past scholarship winners are eligible to re-apply as long as they meet the rest of the requirements listed here.

Deadline for application is April 1, 2017.

The application form and more detailed information are available at our website. If you have not already done so, please remind candidates that they only have a few weeks left to apply!

Please pass the link to any and all qualified students. Here is the link to the page on our website: http://www.mhta.org/educate/stem-scholarships/

Second opportunity:

A SciTechsperience company called Intertech, which is based in Eagan, MN launched a scholarship two years ago. Here is a link to the scholarship page – http://www.intertech.com/About/Foundation/Scholarship

The deadline to apply is Tuesday, March 15, 2017.

I have also included information from the web page below. If you have any questions, please contact Patrick Schaber at pschaber@intertech.com or Alec Lubovich at alubovich@intertech.com for further information.

I appreciate your assistance in recruiting worthy candidates for this wonderful opportunity. We are committed to developing a well-educated technology literate workforce. With your assistance, this program is one step toward achieving that goal.

Many thanks,
Tim Barrett
Director of STEM Education and Workforce Developement
Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA)

Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee