🎥 High school aged robotics program in Salina receives $1,000 grant

By: NICOLAS FIERRO

Salina Post

The 'Roboyotes,' a robotics program in Salina that builds and crafts robots has just received a $1,000 grant to help fund their program. 

At the campus of Kansas Wesleyan University, Clearwave Fiber (internet service provider) presented a $1,000 grant towards the funding of a high school aged student robotics program in Salina, the Roboyotes. 

"We love robotics and we want to shift our investment into organizations that meet our goals," said Senior Vice President of Marketing for Clearwave Fiber, Shelley Hallier.

According to Hallier, Clearwave Fiber wants to help rural communities and smaller towns to have all of the “technological advantage” as bigger cities do. 

The 'Roboyotes' is a robotics program comprised of high school aged students, ranging from the Saline County and surrounding areas. They are part of the nationwide program "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" (FIRST), which has over 10,000 teams/programs in the US. 

The Roboyotes are the 10682nd team to join the program, also known as 'Team 10682.'

Team 10682 built "Zippy," a robot that competed at the First Robotics Competition (FRC) in the '2025 Reefscape' which was the team's first robot competition to compete in. 

Lead Mentor and Coach for the Roboyotes, Sheila Alstatt stated that any high school aged student whether from any of the surrounding areas of Saline County, is welcome to join. She also commented that students can get involved by doing many tasks and not just by building a robot.

These tasks include design, marketing, crafts, technology and much more.

“Even if you are not necessarily that much in to building robots, you can still join and we can find jobs for everybody," said Alstatt.

Before the Roboyotes started, they were formerly known as "3172" and the team was unable to be hosted by their former location. After having to rebuild connections with sponsors and mentors, they successfully managed to relocate to Kansas Wesleyan University.

For those interested in wanting join the Roboyotes you can email Sheila Alstatt: [email protected]