Women's March

Team 812 Midnight Mechanics attended San Diego’s 2nd Annual Women’s March on January 20th, 2018. All genders of the community gathered together to support women’s rights and human rights through empowering messages from women speakers in our community. This women led movement created unity across the nation under the same theme of “Hear Our Voice”. Not only were community members fighting for human rights, but also rights of Latinos, blacks, Native Americans, and the LGBTQ community. This march was to stand in solidarity for equality and to encourage San Diegans to vote. The Midnight Mechanics held posters with quotes saying: “my body my choice,” “justice has no gender,” “rights take might,” and many more. Beginning at 10 am, various women shared their stories of empowerment on a stage by the San Diego County Administration Center. The Midnight Mechanics listened and cheered to show support for the strong women making their voices be heard. After all speeches were made, all 37,000 people at the march began to walk down Pacific Highway. During the march we held our posters and chanted “the people united will never be divided.” This experience was important for the Midnight Mechanics as we work hard to decrease the gap between men and women dominating the STEAM fields. Currently, our senior mechanics have registered to vote. As a team we will continue to advocate for equality in regards to gender and race through our Outreach events such as the Girls in STEAM Conference and our Alliance for Hope Conference coming in May.   

Spreading your horizons

In 2017, at SDSU University, Expanding Your Horizons, constructed and established a Girls’ Conference in order to stimulate, and to ultimately aspire girls to be more engrossed and involved in STEAM. Our part in this influential conference was to not only achieve our goal of spreading awareness and emboldening and influencing girls to being more interactive and involved in STEAM, but to also give girls confidence and new perspectives of themselves and of other women, who dedicate their lives being in STEAM careers. By invigorating girls we help them develop and broaden their educational and personal horizons. For this conference, we were able to achieve our goals, by setting up a car building station. In this station, elementary to middle school girls were challenged with building an automatic car with legos, motors, and batteries, which the girls had to test out and race. The result of this conference was the girls’ experience with FIRST and their newly encompassed motivation to achieve more in STEAM activities, events, and clubs, such as a school Robotics Team, which also allows them to spread awareness and encouragement to other girls. By empowering girls to their full potential, and by being extensive with our cause and awareness, we expand and improve students’, especially girls’, horizons academically and personally, which permits them the opportunity to being more involved and subservient of others in STEAM.

“We’re not here to say pink and princesses are bad, we just want girls to know they can build their own castles, too!” -Debbie Sterling

Barnes and noble Makers fair

Every year, Team 812 Midnight Mechanics are given the opportunity to present and showcase our robot to those attending the Barnes and Noble Makers Fair. Children and adults of all ages were able to operate our robot through assistance by a Midnight Mechanic. For the fair, our team constructed an obstacle course using pic pipes that allowed the driver to maneuver our robot through multiple turns and park into a parking spot. The public were able to get it down pretty quick and had a fun time operating our robot. Along with the robot on display, we also had members of the team introduce the idea of FIRST and STEAM to the adults. Through the fair, young children and adults were able to experience first hand into what Robotics is. The result of this conference was the shopper's experience with STEAM. Midnight Mechanic's goal is to bring awareness while encouraging community members in pursuing a STEAM career.