1. 2|mcccagora.com • The Agora Campus News November 23, 2015
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A robotics program sponsored by
MCCC has created a pair of champions.
The VEX Robotics Club gives high
school and elementary students a chance
to work together on a team to design a ro-
bot with a specific function.
Local competitions are held across the
country where multiple teams come to
participate, said Jeff Demaray, the mentor
of the robotics club.
Two students in the robotics program,
Marissa Harrison, 14, and Tessa Gar-
lepied, 15, were the Middle School VEX
Skyrise Competition 2014-2015 champi-
ons.
MCCC also has a robotics club, di-
rected by Bob Leonard, separate from the
VEX Robotics program.
Demarary said student usually begin
practicing around the end of October or
beginning of November.
“We are trying to get them to convert
over to the VEX U robotics,” Demaray
said.
Demaray said he uses the VEX Robot-
ics program as a way to promote MCCC.
“We bring banners and promotions to
the competitions to show the college to
students who otherwise may not know
it’s there,” Demaray said.
The VEX Robotics club is part of the
STEM Program (Science, Technology,
Engineering, Math) at MCCC, he said.
Participation in the club does go on the
transcripts of the students, but no credits
are offered at the moment. That’s some-
thing the group is working on, Demaray
said.
The VEX Robotics group is a non-
credit lifelong learning class, beginning
this semester.
There are two competitions per year,
one at the Monroe County Fair and one in
the Health Building at MCCC called The
MCCC/Autodesk Fall VEX competition,
which took place on Oct. 10.
The MCCC/Autodesk Fall VEX quali-
fier is a competition where students com-
pete for a spot at the state championship
at Michigan State University, Demaray
said.
Seven local teams consisting of 21
students competed for the VEX trophy,
along with teams from around the coun-
try.
“The events consist of four primary
parts: qualification matches, elimination
matches, skills and judging,” Demarary
said.
After a quick inspection of the robots,
the computer randomly generates two
team alliances to compete.
The teams must work together to score
as many points as possible.
During the skills tests, competitors are
judged on their programming and driving
skills.
The scores are kept separate and the top
scoring team receives bids to states or the
World Championship in Louisville, Ken-
tucky.
Harrison and Garlepied have both been
on the VEX Robotic team for three years.
“We have always been on the same
team; we have done about 13 competi-
tions together,” Harrison said.
Their winning robot was an elevator
lift that could stack cubes; the goal was
to see whose robot could stack the cubes
the highest.
Harrison and Garlepied said they
worked on their robot for about five
months with continuous improvements
after that.
Both girls got involved in robotics after
they were invited to see a robot competi-
tion.
“The first year of robotics is mostly just
learning; our first robot barely worked at
all,” Harrison said.
“We both went into this blind, it has
definitely been a learning process,” Gar-
lepied said. “We learn as we go.”
High school and elementary students
can come to the robotics club Tuesday
and Thursday nights from 7-9 p.m.
“We spread the word any way we can;
anyone can show up,” Demaray said.
Being involved in VEX Robotics clubs
either in elementary or high school gives
the student an opportunity to compete for
millions of dollars in scholarships from
different colleges, according to Demaray.
“This is a good way for students to
build their résumé and for kids to use
their brain,” Demaray said.
He said the ultimate payoff is seeing the
students be successful.
He got involved with robotics after his
sons joined a robotics club during high
school and never left.
“The kids are what bring me back; they
aren’t the same when they leave,” De-
maray said. “They grow and understand
more.”
When the kids come to the club, there
is no instruction kit; it is all up to them,
he said.
“It is strictly trial and error. We help
them when they need it, but they figure
out how to build the robot on their own,”
Demaray said.
Richard McKinley, who started the ro-
botics club at MCCC with Demaray, said
his favorite part is working with the kids
and helping them build robots.
McKinley worked at Jefferson and
Monroe High School and then started the
program at MCCC.
“My favorite part is seeing the kids do
things that I can’t, McKinley said. “These
are the best group of kids I have worked
with.
Ethan Harbaugh, 13, and Samuel
Mohn, 14, are first and third year club
members respectively.
Mohn attended a competition in Louis-
ville, Ken., and was ranked the 27th
high-
est team in Michigan.
After seeing his brother do robotics at
his high school, Mohn joined VEX as
soon as he was old enough, he said.
“Trying to fix your mistakes every
week is so much fun,” Harbaugh said.
“It’s cool to see what other teams are cre-
ating and to compete against them.”
“Eventually you learn what everything
does and how the parts work; then you
can help other people who are just start-
ing out,” Mohn said.
Derek Ball, dad of one of the members,
said it is really nice seeing his son looking
forward to coming to the robotic meet-
ings and competitions.
“I needed something for him to get in-
volved in that would generate an income
one day,” Ball said. “It also allows us to
bond as father and son; it gives us some-
thing to work on together.”
Team member Caden Smith, 13, said
that the team dedication brings him back.
Working with my team and never giv-
ing up is really cool,” Smith said. “Being
determined and working together to build
Robotics program produces champions
Student Marissa Harrison works on her team’s Skyrise Competition robot.
Continued from Page 1
“It’s seen as this city of lights, and love,
and of life. People are just driven to its allure.
I never really understood what any of that
was about until I actually got there, though,”
Grzywinski said.
“It’s so beautiful, and busy, and full of life.
It’s brilliant. The time we spent there was
amazing.”
For her, standing underneath the Eiffel
Tower was a surreal moment.
“It’s one of the most known landmarks in
the world, and watching it light up at night is
a moment that I will remember for the rest
of my life, but it’s kind of been tainted and
soiled by the image of the tower being dark.
That image is so haunting and just scary and
sad,” she said.
Former MCCC student Kayla Corne also
commented.
“When I first heard the news about the ter-
rorist attacks in Paris, my heart sank,” she
said. “I thought to myself, I was just there,
how is this happening? All I could think
about was all of the good times and memo-
ries we had there were now in the shadows
of fear.”
Another issue which is now front and cen-
ter is the Syrian refugee crisis.
Many argue that ISIS wants the US to re-
ject refugees and increase airstrikes in Syria
and abroad. This helps their goal by creating
new enemies of the US who will be persuad-
ed into fighting for groups like ISIS, who re-
cruit those affected by our militant actions in
the Middle East.
Corne said that denying entrance to any
refugee sends the wrong message.
“These people fleeing need a safe place to
go. They are longing to find hope for tomor-
row, and I think the least we can do is provide
them a little peace of mind in a time of tur-
moil,” she said.
“Honestly, if ISIS wants to do something
to America, they will. Refugees are an in-
dependent factor of what is going on, and to
clump them into the terrorist crisis is wrong,”
Corne said.
“It is my hope that people will begin to
educate themselves more on the topic of
refugees.”
The judgments on refugee motives dis-
credits their past and the conditions they left,
Corne said.
“Our world has always had to combat hate,
and it’s time we break the mold,” she said.
Grzywinski also said she thinks the U.S.
and other countries should continue to aid
refugees from the Middle East.
“We change our Facebook profile picture
filters, we retweet all of these things saying
‘pray for Pairs’and ‘pray for peace,’‘pray for
the world.’We light up our buildings with the
colors of the French flag. We talk about how
these things need to change, yet how can we
say that we support them if we don’t want to
help them?”
“These people have nowhere to go. I un-
derstand the government at both the state
and federal levels are trying to be cautious of
other attacks that may take place here. I get
that they want to protect their own citizens,”
she said.
“I get that ISIS has claimed that it has sol-
diers, or followers, or whatever they label
themselves, here in the states. None of this
changes the fact that these [refugees] need
help.”
Hill also voiced concern for the art and
history that countries like Paris have to lose
in targeted attacks. Earlier this year ISIS
claimed responsibility for the destruction of
invaluable historic artifacts in the Middle
East, such as those in the ancient Assyrian
city Nimrud.
“Not only would these terrorists groups be
causing mayhem, but they’d also be taking
away art and culture that has existed for, in
many cases, centuries,” she said.
“I know people have lost their lives, and so
many others are in a state of panic, but some-
one has to think about the art and culture. It
gives the present a look in to the past, and it’s
humbling.”
Continued from Page 1
“Sometimes I forget to pluck
my eyebrows, sometimes I forget
to shave my armpits—sometimes
I just don’t feel like wearing mas-
cara. I’m still okay with the way I
look,” she said.
The fact that men don’t have
these duties is frustrating to her.
“It’s weird that girls are expect-
ed to wear makeup, wear tight
clothes and shave their body hair-
less except for the really long hair
on their head,” she said. “Guys
are just like, ‘Okay, well I hopped
out of bed today, and I maybe put
on a tee shirt.’
“It sucks that girls feel pres-
sured, like they can’t be beautiful
if they don’t shave their armpits,”
she said.
Messer told a story she heard
that resonated with her. A wom-
en was approached by a man
who told her she would be really
beautiful if she just shaved her
legs. Her response was posting
glamour photos of her with her
unshaven legs to her Facebook,
saying, “Am I not beautiful?”
“If you have to go back 20 years
when you were first handed a ra-
zor and you were told to shave
your legs and you have to sit there
and think about it, and you didn’t
want to do that then, then don’t,”
Messer said. “Do what you want
to do. You don’t have to live your
life for men and other women,”
To the women who look down
on other women who don’t shave,
Messer said
“Get over yourself.”
And to the men who don’t know
how to feel about it,
“You don’t shave your pits, you
don’t shave your legs.”
The power struggle between
men and women bothers MCCC
student Phoenix Vaive.
“People aren’t allowed to be
opposed to things like shaving.
I think that’s interesting,” Vaive
said.
“It’s like men kind of adopt
the standard for women. Not that
they shave their legs, but that they
think women are beautiful only
if they do shave their legs. And
that’s kind of weird.”
Vaive thinks that we focus too
much on appearance as a whole,
without considering the person
behind our looks.
“Invest yourself into figuring
out who you are—not what you
are and what you have on your
body. Just be yourself.”
Women who have to remove
hair on their face for fear of being
looked at for it is yet another issue
of these expectations.
“That’s unfair if they’re judged
for what they’re born with. That’s
like flat-out segregation,” Vaive
said.
Messer explained that some
blonde-haired girls like herself
may have hair on their face that’s
just not visible.
For girls who have darker hair,
they may have to remove or
bleach those same hairs on their
face.
“And it’s like… why? It’s you,”
Messer said.
Dr. Kovach said that many
women have heavy facial hair,
and that society should accept it.
The pressure women face
comes down to social sanctions—
informal sanctions against doing
what is not considered normal.
We see these in action every
day, from the way people treat
others based on their personal ap-
pearance alone to behaviors like
smoking, she said.
These sanctions against what’s not
normativehavedifferentdegrees.
“A woman who chooses not
to shave her facial hair that she’s
had since she was 14 and she’s
just tired of it now gets brutalized
somewhere, minorly harassed,
stared at, all of that… or eventu-
ally may in fact get cornered in a
hallway at their high school,” she
said.
Human beings have a history
of trying to control what they feel
they don’t understand.
Dr. Kovach sees this divide be-
tween men and women as a fal-
lacy, because there is no real mys-
tery to womanhood.
At the same time, she finds it
interesting how men have begun
to shave their body hair, as well as
go tanning.
The idealized male figure will
always exist, but he’s changing.
“It was John Wayne, then it was
the Marlboro Man… I’m not sure
who it is anymore,” she said.
Continued from Page 1
They figured maybe she was
drunk and went home with
friends. Williams had the same
thoughts at first.
“Maybe they were overreact-
ing, maybe she’s just drunk some-
where,” he said.
Williams was active in the
search and very cooperative with
the family.
“Monday around 1 or 2 I took
the dog out for a walk looking for
Chelsea, then he stepped on a fox
trap as I’m looking,” he said. “I’m
walking back with him, I have
blood on me and the family is in
my yard; it just looked really bad.”
“By the time I got back from
the vet, there were about 20 cars
in my side field, so I helped them
search,” Williams said.
“It was like a circus for two
weeks in my yard, constant news
crews and search parties.”
He thinks he did all he could in
the pre-planning of the party.
“They are really thought-out
parties,” he said. “I had 15 guys
running security for me. I had or-
ganized parking, people were run-
ning the parking.”
After everything that happened
with Bruck, Williams said that he
would never have another party.
But he changed his mond and de-
cided to move the party 45 miles
north to Hamtramck.
According to Williams, Bruck
had attended two parties before
the 2014 version. She was a fan,
he said.
“I feel horrible for Chelsea’s
family, I couldn’t imagine,” Wil-
liams said.
He said the SWAT team paid
him a very unpleasant visit.
“They weren’t very nice to me;
I even let them in,” Williams said.
“They talked very nasty to me,
threw me on the ground, told me
they were going to shoot my dog.”
“They dug up stuff I burned
back in high school; I mean, that’s
how far they dug back.”
Williams said many people
blamed him for the disappear-
ance. They said it was partly his
fault for throwing a party that big.
“People were coming by all
hours of the night. Some lady
came out at 3 a.m. with her dog
to search my yard,” Williams said.
“Drones were peeking in my win-
dows at night, helicopters flying
over my house. It was the first
time in my life I didn’t feel safe in
my own home.”
Chelsea Bruck’s remains were
found in April, almost six months
after the party, in a wooded area
off Briar Hill Road in north Mon-
roe County. Workers building a
house in the area got their truck
stuck and stumbled on the body
when they got out.
Students who visited Paris react to attack
Social media citing reasons to stop shaving
Party host devastated
MCCC Study Abroad member Alee Hill points
to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris.