The World of Vex

My name is Lauren Mitchell. I have been with the West Tennessee STEM Hub for close to three years now and have loved engineering and building since I was in elementary school. As I got older, I even went to a specialized school for math and science in my high school years. Because of this, anyone who knows me knows I love robotics. To say I was excited to get my head judging certification for Vex robotics was an understatement. Even though I have not been a part of the Vex world for a long time, I have loved every minute of it. I helped Vex set a Guinness world record with my first-ever Vex Worlds tournament and have gotten more and more involved in judging competitions. That is why I decided that after the stem ambassador fall retreat last fall, I would sign up and get my head judge certification. It was the first year I was allowed to be a head judge due to previously being too young to be a head judge for higher-level competitions.

My first head Judging assignment was an Elementary level VEX IQ competition. It was a nice head judge experience for my first time, and the Elementary students were excited to meet the judges and do their interviews. Unfortunately, that meant that they were a little too excited and tried to peek into the judging room and enter the wrong door during other interviews. I learned a lot from the elementary kids though, and I plan to use that information going forward with my next head judging experience. My next head judging assignment will be this weekend with even more teams than before. Luckily, this time, the school is ready, and there are even more judges to help than before.