When members of the robotics team were taking video of Rushmi Jamil, she was told the footage was for social media. In reality, the video of Rushmi, a science teacher and robotics assistant coach, was for a 40- to 60-second video that would be submitted to the judges who would decide the FIRST Tech Challenge Compass Award for Connecticut teams.

And she won the award, with the announcement being made at the Connecticut State Championships in February.  

The Compass Award is given to “an adult coach or mentor who has given outstanding guidance and support to a team throughout the year and demonstrates what it means to be a gracious professional.” FIRST Tech Challenge student team members must submit the nomination. FIRST is an acronym meaning For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. 

Rushmi said she was honored that the students took the time to nominate her. 

“They put a lot of planning and effort into making it a surprise for me, so I thought that was such a kind gesture,” Rushmi said in an interview. “I was happy just to receive the nomination; it was completely unexpected. I didn’t care whether I won — it just meant so much that the students wanted to nominate me.” 

Coach Larry Brackney said that Rushmi has made a huge impact in her first year with the team, inspiring the students in outreach, branding, communication, merchandising, and other aspects. “Most of the accolades the teams won this year were a direct result of her efforts,” he said. 

Rushmi mentored the outreach part of the team, which promotes robotics and STEM, an acronym that stands collectively for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. She said her role was to work with the students on what they wanted to do and how she could guide them. “They are so driven,” she said of the students, “that they made my job easy.”  

Junior Sahasra Reddy, the outreach captain for Ross' Universal Robots (RUR), said Rushmi helped in many ways, encouraging the creation of a website and expanded presence on social media, helping the team host an international Scratch Coding Hackathon with 17 participants, introducing those students to coding and the importance of prototyping and testing; and reviewing the team’s 16-page portfolio. 

“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how grateful I am to the other robotics coaches that have helped me this year: Larry, Jen Solomon, and Julia Hinchman,” Rushmi said. “I would not have been able to do any of it without their support and guidance.” 

Rushmi went to high school in Mississauga, a city in Ontario, Canada, and in her final year the school started a robotics program. She joined. The team, she said, was named rookie team of the year. “That was a nice experience, and when I heard Loomis Chaffee had robotics and needed help, I was excited,” said Rushmi, who teaches biology and chemistry in her first year at Loomis. 

Rushmi said that the robotics coaches want the students to learn through the whole process, not just the competitions. 

“We want to make sure kids come in and learn a set of skills that helps make them problem-solvers,” Rushmi said. “We want to make sure everyone who joins the program has a good experience and learns skills they can apply in other aspects of their lives. You learn to work as a team, solve problems together. You learn that some of your ideas might not work out, but maybe someone else has an idea to consider. Because it is a team sport, there is a lot of learning about gracious professionalism, letting go, time management. Just because there are competitions doesn’t mean we are only focused on competitions.” 

The video that the students put together, in which a number of them speak, ends with this recognition of Rushmi: “Thank you for being our compass.”