Dom’s Story

Dom loves bots.

Well, it’s more than just the bots themselves. He loves everything to do with robotics.

“Building the robot is fun because once you’ve completed it it feels really good; it’s a huge accomplishment. Learning to code is really easy, too,” he says. “It takes a lot of time but that’s the fun of it–you get to learn new stuff and have fun!”

Before this school year, the grade 7 student had never tried robotics. But when a friend encouraged him to check out the after-school club at Rundle Academy, Dom was hooked.

“I did my first class and I was pumped up for it. I’m like, ‘this is gonna be so cool!'” he says.

Since September, Dom has been a jack-of-all-trades on the Rundle robotics team, sharing his skills and knowledge wherever he’s needed.

“Teamwork is a big part,” he says. “It’s lots of problem solving together. You have to keep going even if it doesn’t work. So you keep trying to make things better by thinking of different ways by working together.”

Learning robotics in such a quick amount of time has also given him a newfound appreciation for overcoming challenges.

“It’s like climbing a mountain. Sometimes it’s really hard, but then you’ll get that break and you’ll be like, ‘Sweet, we just completed something really, really awesome!’ Then you’ll keep going higher, and slowly you’ll make good achievements.”

Another mountain Dom has had to overcome is his learning disability. Since coming to Rundle Academy, though, he’s learned how to learn, he’s found a new appreciation for his classes, and he loves going to school now.

“Going to school is a lot better now than it used to be. Now I think of it as a fun thing to do every day,” he says. “This school is amazing and it’s really fun. I love the choices you have here. There’s a lot of different things you can choose from to try. That’s how I found out I love robotics!”