Alumni

Team Rush is a unique team in the fact that many of our former team members often return to our team and help out.  Team RUSH has implemented a policy called the Ten Year Rule. 

The Ten Year Rule:

CURRENT Alumni Activity on Team RUSH:

Anthony Lapp is an engineer at American Axle and Manufacturing. Anthony has been involved with FIRST since 1996 (as a high school student). He started team 857 Superior Roboworks. He came back to RUSH in 2004 and has been an assistant to the lead engineer since that time. Anthony's impact on the team has been seen by his Regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award in 2008.

Shannon Moegling is an engineer for Johnson Controls Inc. Shannon has been involved with FIRST since 1998 (as a high school student). She started robotics in Purdue, team #0461. Upon graduating from Purdue, we were able to get Shannon to come back home and help as a strong female mentor! Shannon is a very valued member on the team - assisting the Team Leader. Shannon has been with RUSH since 2004.

Jason Markesino is an engineer with Applied Manufacturing Technologies Inc. Jason was on our first team of robotics in 1997 as a student. Upon participating for 3 years, he then went to MTU and worked with Anthony to start the MTU Team #857 - Superior Roboworks. Jason graduated from MTU and has returned to RUSH as a mentor. Jason's responsibilities include "Jack of all trades" ... he travels so much, when he is home, he jumps right in to help. Jason is a tremendous asset to our team!

James Slemons is a junior at Kettering University. James was team captain and a driver his senior year. James has taken the knowledge that he has gained through his four years on the team, and used them to assist the build team. James' talent has been a blessing to our team. He is always willing to help with all sorts of things including the open house video and driver try-outs.

Pam Barclay is assisting the Media and Management subteam. Fun fact: she was one of the authors of the Woodie Flowers nomination that won Mrs. Hughes the national award!

Austin Duggan is currently a senior at Kettering University, working towards receiving his degree in mechanical engineering. This year, Austin is mentoring the 12 Volt sub-team. Austin has helped Team RUSH during his freshman and junior years at Kettering. He was a three year member of Team RUSH, being the PEP Team Captain all three years. During his senior year on RUSH, Austin was Team Captain, as well as Drive Team Captain during his senior year and Pit Team Captain both sophomore and junior year.

Josh Fritch is currently helping as a drive coach, after being a driver during his time on Team RUSH.

Alumni mentoring other teams:

Andrew Schreiber is a Kettering University Student mentoring Team 297.

Kelly Schenck is a Kettering University Student mentoring Team 397.

Ryan Fitzgerald is a Kettering University Student mentoring Team 397.

Tiffany Pesta is a Michigan Technological University alumni mentoring Team 401.

Justin Ridley is a Michigan Technological University alumni mentoring Team 118.

In addition to the alumni above, there are many other alumni who have returned to Team RUSH to pitch in with anything that they can. In just the past two years, Ian Duggan, Bryan Duggan, Kurt Wachowski, Liz Hardy and Aaron Diehl have all assisted! We are continuously trying to see what our alumni are doing to encourage the 10 year rule and follow their progress.

Each year, on December 27, we have the annual Team RUSH Alumni Party at the team leader's home. It is no suprise we have members from all over the united states attending - from almost every year of our team. Communication with our RUSH Alumni is very important - this can be seen through the RUSH Alumni Facebook. RUSH is a family and our alumni are a very important part of that family.