Gross Catholic High Graduate Creates The National Robotics Academy

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By Molly Nolte, Gross High School Director of Alumni & Communications

Andrew Jesus ‘21 is turning his passion for robotics into a mentoring program for Midwest students. 

The soon-to-be sophomore at Iowa State University is forming The National Robotics Academy Incorporated (NRAI) as an up-and-coming non-profit. “Our mission is to inspire, create and innovate with students,” Jesus says. Jesus, along with two other colleagues hope to facilitate access to Robotics competitions and STEM educational opportunities for K-12 students.

“I really wanted to provide a more hands-on experience for students who are interested in pursuing robotics,” Jesus says. Besides offering tournaments for students to showcase projects, NRAI hopes to obtain a robotics trailer filled with supplies and electronics as a resource to students during competitions. “We are really planning on becoming a full-service experience for schools and students by arriving the night before the tournament date, setting up and preparing the fields and electronics,” Jesus says. “We will then come in the next day and run everything for the school.” 

Through NRAI, Jesus hopes to also promote and provide robotics summer camps to students as well as supporting STEM educational classes. “STEM” education is the intentional integration of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to create a student-centered learning environment in which students investigate and engineer solutions to everyday problems or extracurricular activities. Gross Catholic provides STEM courses through the STREAM Academy. 

“When I was in high school it was my experience with STEM educational classes which allowed me to take what equations I was learning in physics class with Mr. Hamersky, and apply it to the robotics team,” Jesus remembers. “It’s in part why I value my education from Gross Catholic so much; I truly see and believe in the value of STEM classes for students, I got to benefit from it through a firsthand experience.” 

While at Gross Catholic, Jesus competed with the robotics team and had the opportunity to travel to the World Robotics Competition in China. There he networked with students from around the world and became friends with his future colleagues who are helping him form NRAI today. “It was an amazing experience 67 being able to showcase what we built through our robotics team that year but also connecting and networking with other students who were passionate about robotics,” Jesus says. 

Through NRAI services and educational courses, Jesus and his colleagues hope in the future that midwest area students are fierce competitors on the world stage of robotics. “We are seeing a growing trend among Nebraska and Iowa students in robotics, they just need the tools and support,” Jesus states. “Gross Catholic provided me with such a solid foundation on an educational basis, it’s now my turn to give back and mentor students; it just happens to be through robotics.”

Jesus was recently tapped for an internship this summer in Dallas where he will be working with Raytheon Technologies Corporation in their mission systems branch while working on military aircraft technology. Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate. The company is one of the largest aerospace intelligence services providers and defense manufacturers in the world.