As cool as big, complicated robots can be, there’s a lot more behind the scenes of the Robotics than people expect. As the Project Manager for the Robotics team, senior Delaney DeRuiter facilitates and organizes events, works with their booster club and steps in to help when people need.

“I’m the one who, at the beginning of the school year, facilitates the emailing of sponsors, tries to get parents in the booster club, emails elementary schools, and sets the schedule for the entire year with all of our events like the Robo Rodeo, Mario Kart tournament, banquet, all the other things,” DeRuiter said.

When she first joined the program, DeRuiter tried out each aspect of the team before deciding business was for her.

“I started out in software, but I didn’t like the program that we were using at the time,” DeRuiter said. “It was just tedious, and so I went over to hardware, but there were too many people over there. So I was like, ‘you know what, I’ll go to the business side, no one’s over there.’ Then I started getting acquainted with so much stuff — there’s so many requirements for the business part of the robotics competition that it’s like it’s not even robotics at that point.”

In robotics competitions, DeRuiter writes for the team and completes writing passages called Chairmans, in which she answers questions about the team in at least 250 words, and composes an essay of at most 10,000 words about the team and their history.

“We have to go in during competition and do a speech/skit, with three people talking about the team presenting to judges,” DeRuiter said. “From that, the judges decide who has had the most impact on their community, who has the best business program, who is the most sustainable, and who exemplifies the values of FIRST, which is the company that we work for. So it’s not really just about building cool robots or whatever — [there’s] a lot more behind the scenes.”

In addition to her Robotics duties, DeRuiter’s passion for art has grown since she was a child. Her dad and both of his grandfathers were painters, and DeRuiter’s parents met through their love of art, so they made sure it was prevalent in her life from a young age.

“I started getting really serious about it in middle school after I started getting interested in graphic design and art history,” DeRuiter said. “That inspired me to actually start studying art and the principles and all of that. I know how to [create] digital art for graphic design, but I mostly use graphite and colored pencil.” 

For DeRuiter, art classes have presented a chance to get out of her comfort zone and to try projects or skills she may not have tried herself. Since she had learned the basics through her own studies, the art teacher was able to push her further than most.

“You don’t necessarily need to take [art classes] to be an artist, but they do kind of force you to take on projects,” DeRuiter said. “Doing that will help you so much in making better drawings on your own. It also gives you something for your portfolio because, in my experience, I never make finished drawings — all I want to do is sketch. I have to be physically forced to actually take the initiative to make something and I either have to be paid for commission or take it on during art class.”

Rather than a traditional AP test, the AP Drawing course has students compile a portfolio of works throughout the year which is then graded based on the response to a “sustained investigation” or prompt.

“They grade off of how good your sustained investigation and artworks are,” DeRuiter said. “It was ‘how could I use similar imagery to create meaning when I’m not trying to make meaning of something?’ I have a few different things that I use in my art, like dogs, colors and fantastical and storytelling imagery. I tried to combine those things intuitively because that’s how I create art, and I try to find meaning and analyze it intuitively.”

In addition to the AP Drawing class, DeRuiter also takes AP Art History, which she says has given her a new appreciation for art that a lot of people would see as meaningless.

“Compared from freshman year to now, I can see the beauty in a lot more things and I can appreciate a lot more art,” DeRuiter said. “Even just a plain painted canvas that might be stupid and boring to other people, now I know the context because of Art History. It makes me see the value in “bad art” and has kind of shifted my art style from trying to make more people perceive my art is good to me trying to get myself to see art as good. An artist’s artist.”

DeRuiter plans to attend the University of Texas at Dallas as an art major, and is looking to pursue industrial design as a career. 

“I was thinking of being an industrial designer because that combines artistry and the perfection of industry,” DeRuiter said. “It kind of meshes them together. Making cars, maybe even furniture or something. Who knows?”