Westchester Torah Academy’s Middle School Robotics Team has once again proven its talent, dedication and teamwork, earning first and second place in this year’s CIJE Boys Middle School VEX IQ Robotics Competition: Rapid Relay. Competing against more than 70 robots from Jewish day schools nationwide, WTA entered three robots, with one breaking the CIJE all-time record by scoring 109 points in the final round.
Hosted by the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE), the competition challenges students through hands-on STEAM learning. This year’s “Rapid Relay” game tasked students with building and coding robots to pass and shoot balls through four targets, clear switches and score as many points as possible in one minute. Passing between alliance robots earned bonus points, emphasizing both skill and cooperation.
WTA’s students took full initiative throughout the process of getting to the Robotics Team to this point—designing, coding, testing and rebuilding their robots through dozens of engineering cycles. The Team worked together to find time to stay after school, driven to improve their designs. Their coach, Morah Kim, volunteered countless hours to mentor the team, guiding students through technical and strategic problem-solving, and bringing in Torah and school values to every aspect of the work and competition.
This hard work paid off: WTA placed 1st, 2nd, and 21st out of 70 teams—a tremendous accomplishment. But beyond technical achievement, the students embodied one of WTA’s core values: commitment to best self. They pursued their passion with focus and resilience, modeling how WTA inspires students to face challenges with creativity and responsibility.
The competition also sparked meaningful connections to Torah values. Through collaborative gameplay and long hours of peer support, Coach Morah Kim opened up discussions with the students around the values of achrayut (personal and communal responsibility) and areyvut (mutual accountability), using robotics as a springboard to explore character and values in action.
To celebrate the team’s big win, WTA hosted a school-wide party, where students and faculty cheered on the champions and admired the winning robots in action. The excitement in the room reflected the pride felt throughout the WTA community.
Thank you to Morah Kim for her passionate leadership, and to the families who supported this journey. With their record-breaking success, WTA’s robotics team has shown that with vision, hard work and heart, anything is possible.
