Student achievement and the US-Micronesian partnership were on display this week in Yap, as five high schools battled it out in an elimination style robotics competition.

Yap Robo Day was the culmination of a school year long project in which student led teams designed and built robots. The League provides students at remote island schools practical experience in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).



"Through the Yap Robo League, you the students have turned tiny scraps of metal and plastic into complicated robots that are able to complete complex tasks," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Insular and International Affairs Doug Domenech in a written statement read to attendees. "You can apply the same principles as you continue through life and pursue your own ambitious goals for education and growth in the future."


The event was held at the Yap State Sports Complex and featured teams from Yap High School, Outer Islands High School, Yap Catholic High School, Yap SDA School, and Faith Christian Academy. Students, families, and the public gathered to watch timed matches in which robots raced to pick up colored donuts and place them on goal posts and in corner goals, or scramble to block other team’s robots attempting to do the same.


Both the Yap State Public Service Corporation (YSPSC) and the Pacific Missionary Airline (PMA) fielded corporate partner teams, comprised of staffers who served as teachers and mentors to the students over the course of the school year. Yap’s State Department of Education supported and prioritized the work throughout.


The Yap Robo League was first established in 2011 by Habele, a US-based nonprofit which provided donated robotics kits to two high schools. In 2017 an investment from the Office of Insular Affairs allowed for expansion to a true statewide, student-driven, league.


After a heated series of multi-team qualification games and elimination battles, Yap Catholic High School’s team emerged as the winner, with Outer Islands High School earning a close second place.


A key theme woven throughout the event was the sustainability of the League as a mechanism both for fostering student learning and as a vehicle for unprecedented cooperation among schools, which has extended to sports and other efforts beyond robots. "I said it multiple times throughout the planning process, and it certainly remains true: getting the first year under our belts is the biggest challenge –now it is just a matter of replicating and improving," observed Michael Wiencek, Principal of Yap Catholic School.


Part of the League’s success and key to its sustainability are the partnerships developed between students in Yap and schools in the US. Robotics teams at Chaminade College Preparatory School in Los Angeles, California and South River High School in Edgewater, Maryland in particular provided generous material donations and peer-to-peer technical assistance.



Citing the decades long strategic partnership between the United States and Federated States of Micronesia, US Ambassador to the FSM Robert Riley observed "Robo Day has a special significance in this regard, as private Americans have traveled to Yap to work closely and one-on-one with the next generation on innovative and cutting-edge technology to help set the agenda for Yap’s future. Technology is critical to economic development and private sector development, which in turn is critical to the future of the FSM. Habele has been in the forefront of this effort, establishing capacity and providing peer-to-peer support as Yapese navigate their own path as individuals and communities."

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Robots will battle on Tuesday, May 22nd Monday, May 21st at the Yap Sports Complex and the public is encouraged to attend.

“Yap Robo Day” starts at 11:00am. Student teams at five high schools have designed and built robots over the course of the year and these robots will compete in a series of elimination skirmishes to determine the statewide Yap Robo League Champion for 2018.

US based nonprofit “Habele” established the Robo League in 2012, providing materials, instruction, and US partner schools to Yap Catholic High School and the Yap SDA School. The league was the first high school based robotics program in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

Habele trainer working with students at Yap SDA School.

Thanks to a grant from the Office of Insular Affairs, a long-standing proposal to expand the League was realized in the summer of 2017. Yap High School, Outer Islands High School, and Faith Christian Academy were invited to join the league and will be competing for their first time at Robo Day 2018.

In addition to three independent and two public high schools participating on May 21, there will be robotics teams from two corporate community partners.

Both the Yap State Public Service Corporation (YSPSC) and the Pacific Missionary Airline (PMA) have built robots of their own. They’ve also worked with the school teams to guide and support the students’ work over the course of the year and created materials for the competition field.

“The Office of Insular Affairs is pleased to provide a grant towards this pilot Science, Technology, Engineering and Math learning project for schools on Yap and neighboring islands in the Federated States of Micronesia,” said the Honorable Doug Domenech, Assistant Secretary Insular and International Affairs​

A team of three students from OIHS will fly in from Ulithi on May 18th, along with their sponsor, Marino Juanito Harteligiye, making the event a truly statewide competition.

Robo Team Students from Yap High School working on their robots.

The official start time for Yap Robo Day is Tuesday, May 22nd Monday, May 21st at the Yap Sports Complex. The robotics teams will be there by 9:00 AM to complete final test runs and review the schedule of events for the day.

For further details contact Michael Wiencek, YCHS Principal.

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Scale, isolation, and limited natural resources are major barriers to economic development in the many tiny islands of Micronesia.

The islands of this remote and strategically situated nation span a length nearly the distance from Los Angeles to New York across the remote Western Pacific

These challenges aren’t stopping hard ambitious students of the Yap Robo League. Students from five of Yap State’s high schools have been working to design, build, and operate complex robots constructed from simple parts, and will showcase their achievement in a public competition and science fair this May.


The Yap Robo League was created by Habele, a volunteer driven, US based nonprofit, with deep ties and cultural fluency across Micronesia, in 2011. Established in 2006 by former Peace Corps Volunteers, Habele is heavily reliant on cash and in-kind donations, as well as gifts of time and talent, from individual American citizens.

In 2017, the Office of Insular of Affairs, under the leadership of Douglas W. Domenech, Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas, invested in a pilot project to expand the league, growing this hands-on STEM program from two independent high schools to five public and private high schools across Yap State.


“Habele’s work is founded on the recognition that publicity, competition, and consequences empower and sustain long term ownership and capacity,” explained Scott Leis, a former Peace Corps Volunteer and Habele’s CEO.


Ameila Weiss, Director of Habele's STEM Department, provided instruction for students and school staff this winter at a series of workshops and trainings. Her visit followed extensive community meetings and consultations with local leaders and parents by Habele’s senior leadership at the start of the school year. The schools on Yap have also been paired with robotics teams at high schools in the United States, who’ve provided additional technical support as well generous in-kind donations of robotics parts.


Now, Deborah Weiss of the Habele's Special Projects Section is working with Teresa Filepin, Director of Yap State's Department of Education, and the staff of all five participating high schools to plan the day long robotics exhibition in Colonia, scheduled for May 22, 2018.

“We are all tremendously excited about the progress made by each team,” explained Michael Wiencek, Principal of Yap Catholic High School, one of the original Yap Robo teams, and which fielded the all-star team representing the Federated States of Micronesia at the First Global international robotics olympics in Washington, DC last summer.



As the students make progress toward their May 22 goal, incentives and rewards flow in, most recently in the form of 11 boxes of donated robotics parts mailed by the Eagle Engineering robotics team of Chaminade Prep, a Habele partner school in Los Angeles.


“Building on our relationship with the students of Yap, and empowering them with more materials to build robots, is tremendously satisfying,” said Tommy Smeltzer, coach of Eagle Engineering. “As Habele reminds us time and again, the strength of these remote island lays in their human capital, and for us that is a high yield investment.”

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(Colonia, Yap) Island students have been receiving high tech training in the design and construction of robots as the five high schools of the Yap Robo League work towards their goal of a statewide robotics competition next spring.

Habele’s Director of STEM Programs, Amelia Weiss, first met with participating school leaders on Yap in early December. A series of workshops, site visits, and peer-to-peer trainings followed. Administrators, teachers, and select students from Yap High School, Outer Islands High School, Yap Catholic High School, Yap SDA School, and Faith Christian Academy participated throughout.



In addition to the five participating high schools, staff from the Yap State Public Service Corporation (YSPSC) and Pacific Missionary Aviation (PMA) joined each of the training sessions.

These local industry partners are also building robots in preparation for the all Yap State “Robo Day” scheduled from May 22 of 2018. “It’s clear the students and teachers are highly motivated,” observed Weiss between meetings. “They have the drive, the equipment is coming in, and now we are providing the technical support to help them meet their goals”


Stateside, students and teachers at South River High School in Edgewater, Maryland learned about their peers on Yap. The Power Hawks Robotics Club hosted Habele’s President, Scott Leis, who spoke to the team about the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Yap State, Micronesian culture and the Compacts of Free Association (COFA), which formally link the Freely Associated States (FAS) to the US.

Leis also answered questions from students about how they could support the students at their partner school – Yap Public High School.

“The students at South River High School were eager to learn all about the Western Pacific,” explained Leis. “Few realized the geographical realities of life on a remote archipelago or that there is a long-standing, formal relationship between the FSM and US”.


On the US West Coast, students of the Eagle Engineering Robotics Club at Chaminade College Preparatory High School packed a dozen boxes of donated robotics parts. These will be sent to Yap Catholic High School, which will distribute the equipment to the five participating schools across Yap State.

This donation compliments scores of supplies that Habele has already sent this year, thanks to a Technical Assistance Program grant from the United States Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs (OIA).

“We are thrilled to be helping our peers in the Pacific,” said Coach Tommy Smeltzer of Eagle Engineering. Since 2009, we’ve been proud to support the teams of the Yap Robo League through donations and technical support, and it is especially exciting to see the League continue to grow and thrive.”

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Students on Micronesia's famously traditional Island of Stone Money have begun to design and assemble hi-tech programmable robots.

Robotics clubs at five high schools in Yap received VEX Classroom and Competition Mechatronics kits earlier this month, kicking off expansion of the popular Yap Robo League.

Using the raw parts, students will design, build, and code robots to compete in a statewide STEM exhibition and robotics competition in May. Yap’s Robo League was established in 2011 by the US-based nonprofit “Habele,” and is now expanding across that state through a pilot grant award by the Office of Insular Affairs.



“We were inspired by the students from Yap who represented the Federated States of Micronesia this summer at the 2017 FIRST Global Challenge - H2O FLOW! international robotics competition for high school students here in Washington, D.C.,” said OIA Director Nik Pula.  “Through robotics, the Habele Outer Island Education Fund has been promoting the broadening of students’ experience in applying basic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math skills in a positive, competitive, and hands-on way, and we are pleased to support expansion of this opportunity for more students in Yap,” continued Pula.


Pupils and teachers at Yap Catholic High School have taken the lead as peer mentors, supporting expansion of the Robotics Team at the Yap SDA School and the creation of new robotics clubs at Yap High School, Outer Island High School, and Faith Academy. Their efforts follow community meetings held by Habele in early Fall to gauge interest and develop plans for the league expansion.


“As the newest school on Yap we are thrilled part of this,” said John Malimai, Principal of Faith Christian Academy in Makiy. “The materials and technical training will expand the scope of our science instruction, and working with the other schools through the league helps us integrate and collaborate with other educators on island.”

While students at the five schools have begun tinkering, teachers and administrators are coordinating for a series of technical trainings in late 2017 and early 2018 to best guide their student’s work. The teams’ skills, developed over the coming months, will be showcased in a public five school robotics competition on May 22, 2018.

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Three students from Yap State proudly represented the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) at an international high school robotics competition this July in Washington DC.

Natasha Loochaz, John Steven Gilinug, and Francis Yarofalyango, comprised Team Micronesia, and joined students from over 150 other nations at the event.

Over several months each team designed, built, and programmed, their own complex robot based on the same simple parts kit, bringing the robots to the FIRST Global Challenge in DC for the matches and exhibition. In the arena, robots were organized into teams of three, battling to quickly gather and sort plastic balls representing clean water and contaminated water.

The team from Yap featured three graduating seniors from Yap Catholic High School, who earned the privilege to compete as an all-star team based on their performance in the Habele Yap Robo League.


In the first round of competition in DC, the FSM Team joined Argentina and Kuwait in a match against Bulgaria, Japan, and Grenada. Then Micronesia, allied with Vietnam and Australia, battled Cameroon, Chile, and Sudan. The day ended with a match pitting Micronesia, Brazil and Kosovo against China, Bermuda and Bahrain. For the day, the FSM went two for three.

Early the second day Micronesia partnered with Uzbekistan and Bangladesh in a match with Uruguay, Turkmenistan and Norway. They next teamed up with Ghana and Madagascar opposite Cameroon, Zambia and a pan South American team. Their final match reunited the Micronesians with Kuwait, along side Gabon, to compete with Japan, the Czech Republic, and a pan-Asian team.


The Habele Yap Robo League began in 2011 thanks to Eagle Engineering, the robotics team from Chaminade College Preparatory, a high school in California. Ameilia Weiss, then a Chaminade student, identified the opportunity for high school robotics on Yap during a dive trip to Micronesia. Back at school, she organized donations of robotics parts and instructional materials as a Habele volunteer, getting the League up and running.

Early in 2017 the League was invited to field a team at the FIRST Global event. Over a few short months, the students scrambled to design, assemble, and program, a competition worthy robot from a kit and system very different than the Vex Robotics parts with which they had worked in the past.

Lee Webber, former president and publisher of Guam’s Pacific Daily News, sounded the call in an April column about the team’s goal to compete in DC, inviting readers across the region to donate toward the costs of provisioning, training, and sending the students.


In addition to several hundred individual donations made by US and FSM citizens through a Habele Go Fund Me webpage, generous corporate support was provided by Tim Waters & Associates, the JoDoCo Group, the Matson Foundation, College of Micronesia, Blue Sky Traders, and United Airlines.

Senators Isaac V. Figir and Joseph Urusemal of the Yap Congressional Delegation made supporting the students a high priority for the Congress of Micronesia. A pair of targeted appropriations was smartly shepherded through the complex federal legislative process to quickly ensure the Team could make it to DC.

Over the course of the FIRST Global event, Team Micronesia earned six match points and 347 competition points. Their final ranking (131st of 163 teams) put them well ahead of more resourced teams from developed nations with widespread robotics, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France.


The Micronesia team, and their mentor Gilippin Pongliyab, also met with FSM officials in DC, including Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr. James A Naich as well as former Peace Corps Volunteers who served in the Islands and Micronesian citizens living in and around DC.

in addition to the high stakes competitions, Natasha, John, and Francis, participated in elaborate Olympic style opening and closing ceremonies, proudly carrying the four-stared flag of Micronesia. They also networked at  workshops, forums, and team building activities with student teams from around the globe.

"The experience was a great one," said Francis Yarofalyango, known to his Team Micronesia peers as “Cisco.” "Participating in the competition was inspiring, especially seeing so many young people pursuing the same goals as I am. Robotics is not only fun but it helps me connect to other people around the world."###

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Reprinted with permission from Kaselehlie Press, Volume 17, Issue 10