“This triumph will inspire other students to see opportunities Innovative Port Arthur students

Port Arthur Independent School District’s Robotics Team members were walking tall and proud at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

Earning a bunch of awards at the GEAR 2023 Competition has a way of doing that for young competitors.

“I was honestly quite shocked about us winning the Gear competition, because it was our first time being in something like this,” says Ezer Hipolito, eighth grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Port Arthur.

“Winning that place has inspired me to use my brain a bit more in this kind of stuff and put more effort into the competition.”

Seventh grader and fellow teammate Jose Moreno says the team didn’t go into the competition thinking they’d do as well as they did.

“We did not think that we were going to place more than the top ten out of the 64 experienced teams, so it was a surprise to us all when we did,” he says.

GEAR, which stands for Get Excited About Robotics, provides hands-on LEGO robotics challenges to elementary and middle school students at no participation fee, ac-