Since our team’s beginning six years ago, Mr.
Steve Kyramarios has been the driving force providing us with all possible avenues
for success. In 1999 The Cheesy Poofs consisted of a mere seven students working
out of an English classroom with no tools or materials. By year five, Steve’s
determination for us to succeed prompted NASA to gift us a portion of the warehouse
where we still work today. In addition to his family and career responsibilities,
Steve gives hundreds of hours of his time each year to mentor our team and volunteer
for FIRST. Working with and learning from an amazing NASA Engineer is truly
a once in a lifetime opportunity, but getting to know Steve as a person and
role model is what makes the biggest impact on our team.
Steve’s dedication to the FIRST program far transcends
just aiding Team 254. When we began, Mr. Kyramarios convinced our struggling
team not to look at the veteran teams with more resources and engineers than
us with jealousy, but rather as examples of how to build a strong program that
could one day compete on their level. What Steve admired most in the great FIRST
veterans was not that they had resources and experience, but that they shared
it with others – a characteristic he embedded in our team as he helped
build it from the ground up. His commitment to this ideal was seen when he persuaded
NASA administration to allow access to the Team 254 facility at Moffett Field
to any FIRST teams in the Bay Area, despite the base’s high security.
Now, teams in situations much like ours a mere half decade ago, have a field
for practicing and testing their robots.
In addition, Steve encouraged our team to reallocate
funds we intended to use to compete in the Arizona Regional to instead purchase
a mobile workshop. This lab-on-wheels allowed our team to make repairs on over
200 other robots at the Sacramento, Silicon Valley, and Championship events
last year, and will once again support all three California Regionals this year.
Both of these examples go to show how important it is to him that all teams,
not just 254, have a positive experience and get the most out of FIRST.
Steve enthusiastically encourages student participation
and ownership of our team, and sets a great example with his tremendous communication
skills in explaining math, science and engineering concepts to us. He exhibits
a passion to teach us creative problem-solving skills. The degree to which Steve
motivates us with his zeal for science and engineering can be seen by the influence
he continues to have on our students even after they graduate from high school.
In fact, Steve’s positive engineering influence has not only inspired
seven Team 254 alumni to work for NASA, but two have even returned as mentors
for the current Cheesy Poofs.
As stated by Dave Lavery, NASA’s Program Executive
for Solar System Exploration, “Steve Kyramarios exemplifies everything
that FIRST, Woodie Flowers, and the award stand for. Volunteering his time and
passion, he has built the smallest team in the country in 1999 into a model
program for all new FIRST teams to emulate – always teaching his team
that excellence means working hard and doing your best at whatever you do. He
is a great role model for students, showing them by example that becoming ‘strong’
is only admirable if you share your resources, experience, knowledge, and friendship
to help others be the best they can be.” It is on this note that we nominate
Mr. Steve Kyramarios for the 2004 Woodie Flowers Award.