Jamaica College’s Robotics club created history on Saturday (April 22) when they struck gold in Houston, Texas, becoming the first Jamaican and Caribbean team to be awarded the MOTIVATE award at the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition.

In a statement on Saturday, Jason Brown, manager of the Jamaica College Robotics Club, said “At the divisional award ceremony, there were 12 awards from which any of the 191 teams would’ve been selected for. These awards included robot performance…team journey in the local community, (and) impact the nation with STEM.”

Jamaica College, who were also winners of the FIRST Tech Challenge, Jamaica Championships in Kingston Jamaica, also won two of 11 qualifying matches during their judging room interview, where the team presented their engineering and outreach books while answering judges’ questions at their station.

According to the Brown, the team worked hard under the direction of the coaches despite all the obstacles and failures, days of uncertainty, preserving the school’s stance in the face of defeat, and problematic alliance pairings.