Leaving late November and coming home early December, the InvenTeam traveled to American Samoa. They traveled to this territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean to teach school children underwater robotics and to conduct bottom fish studies.

“My favorite part of American Samoa was learning about their culture and how humble and kind they were,” sophomore team member Chelsey Asquith said.

In American Samoa, robotics students met up with their pen pals that they wrote to for two weeks before their trip.

“It was overall an amazing experience, but it was the result of a lot of hard work from a lot of students,” Robert Richards, CAD and underwater robotics teacher, said.

The team taught eight schools, grades eight through twelve how to build ROVs in a bucket and made scientific discoveries, such as witnessing and filming the Yellow lip emperor fish camouflaging itself.

“We spent 10 days in one of the most beautiful parts of the world and got to interact with some of the kindest people I’ve met,” Richards said. “Not only sharing our experiences with underwater robotics, but also conducting research in the marine sanctuary.”

Of the trip of a lifetime for a young student, Richards said, “You have to be proactive. You have to make opportunities for yourself. You can’t sit back and wait and ask for somebody to ask you to go to places like American Samoa it is not going to happen.” Richards said.