KINGSTON, Jamaica –Jamaica College’s Robotics club made history on Saturday by becoming the first Jamaican and Caribbean team to be awarded the MOTIVATE award at the FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Competition in Houston, Texas.

“At the divisional award ceremony, there were 12 awards from which any of the 191 teams would’ve been selected for. These awards included robot performance…team journey in the local community, (and) impact the nation with STEM,” said Jason Brown, manager of the Jamaica College Robotics Club in a press release on Saturday.

Jamaica College, who were also winners of the FIRST Tech Challenge, Jamaica Championships in Kingston Jamaica, also won two of 11 qualifying matches during their judging room interview, where the team presented their engineering and outreach books while answering judges’ questions at their booth.

Brown shared that despite all the challenges and setbacks, days of uncertainty, maintaining the school’s stance in the face of defeat and bad alliance pairings, the team worked hard under the guidance of the coaches.