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Not Your Average Creators
Lorenzo Santillan, 16, sat in the front seat of the school van, looking out at the migrant workers in the fields along the interstate in Southern California. Lorenzo's face still had its baby fat, but he'd recently sprouted a mustache and had taken to wearing gold -- a fistful of rings, a chain and a medallion of the Virgin Mary.The bling wasn't fooling anyone. His mother had lost her job as a hotel maid, and his father, a gardener, was having trouble paying the rent. He could see himself having to quit school to work in those fields.
"What's a PWM cable?" The sharp question from the van's driver, Allan Cameron, snapped Lorenzo out of his reverie. Cameron was a computer science teacher at Carl Hayden Community High School in west Phoenix, and a sponsor of the robotics club there, along with science teacher Fredi Lajvardi. They had put up fliers offering to sponsor anyone looking to compete in the annual Marine Advanced Technology Education Center's Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Competition.
Cameron hadn't expected many students to sign up, particularly not a kid like Lorenzo, who was failing most of his classes. But Lorenzo was one of the first to show an interest. He'd been associated with WBP 8th Street, a west-side gang. When his friends started to get arrested for theft, he left. He didn't want to go to jail.
"PWM," Lorenzo replied automatically. "Pulse width modulation."
Over the past four months, Lorenzo had flourished, learning a new set of acronyms and raising his math grade from an F to an A. He had grown up rebuilding car engines with his brother and cousin. Now he was ready to build something of his own. The team had found its mechanics man.
Cristian Arcega, 16, had been living in a 30-square-foot plywood shed attached to his parents' trailer ever since his younger sister demanded her own room. He liked it there. It was his own space. He was free to contemplate the acceleration of a raindrop as it left the clouds above him, hit the roof and slid toward the puddles outside. He imagined that the puddles were oceans and that the underwater robot he was building at school could explore them.
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