FTC PA 2026-27 Season Blast #10 – Event Registration, Leadership Award and Grants

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Good evening, Teams and Volunteers,

As always, please liberally and broadly share this email with your parents, students, friends, co-workers and acquaintances in and outside of the FIRST robotics community. As always, if you missed any of our season Blasts, please go to our Communications page to reference Announcements and Archive Emails for this and all past seasons.

https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications

Most important regarding season event registration process, see our last Blast #9

PA FTC Qualifier Registration Update – Plenty of Open Slots

 Qualifier Registration opened as planned on Sat Oct 10th at 8:00 am.

Since then and through today, we have had 114 of the 145 FIRST Registered teams (79%) complete their Qualifier choices. There are still many slots open for each qualifier that in all practically ensure that teams can still get into their P1 choice. We still have P1 slots open for the 2 remaining Scrimmages:

  • 2026-11-07 Longhorn Roundup Scrimmage (Kennett Square)
  • 2026-12-05 Green and Red Scrimmage (Gibsonia)

 

We also have plenty of open slots for our first 4 Qualifiers in December:

  • 2026-12-05 South Central Pennsylvania Qualifier (York)
  • 2026-12-06 Greyhound Sprint Qualifier (York)
  • 2026-12-12 Lancaster Area Qualifier (Lancaster)
  • 2026-12-13 Red Tornado Qualifier (Lancaster)

As we have stated in previous Email Blast and Coaches calls, teams that compete in these events get a leg up on other teams as they get an early look at the judging, they

can see what the other teams are doing with regards to cool robot design, strategy and presentation, but mostly because all teams are on a much more level playing field with regards to preparation than what you may experience later in the season.

 Also note that we will be advancing two (2) teams from each of these first four small events regardless of how many teams ultimately compete.

 Regardless, we are fast approaching when we will be offering invitations to teams on the Waitlists for these events starting this Friday, Oct 23rd so act sooner than later if you want to make changes but more importantly get your team, robotics and strategies ready to ROCK!

Waitlist Invitation Schedule link – https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration/waitlist-invitations for the balance of 2026 events. We will send Invitations:

Scrimmages:

Longhorn Roundup Scrimmage – Friday October 23, 2026

Green and Red Scrimmage – Friday November 20, 2026

Qualifiers:

South Central Pennsylvania Qualifier – Friday October 23, 2026

Greyhound Sprint Qualifier – Friday October 23, 2026

Lancaster Area Qualifier – Friday October 30, 2026

Red Tornado Qualifier – Friday October 30, 2026

Refer to our EVENTS page for the full listing:

https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2026-2027-season

EVENT REGISTRATION for NEW and UPDATE Registrations:

https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration

Be sure to get in as early as you can to grab your favorite slot for an upcoming season qualification tournament.

 

FIRST Leadership Award Nominations are open:

The FIRST Leadership Award is proudly back as an exceptional accomplishment for our students!

The FIRST Leadership Award recognizes the dedication and individual contributions of outstanding secondary school students participating in the FIRST Tech Challenge or FIRST Robotics Competition teams. Students in 10th or 11th grade are eligible to be nominated by their team for the FIRST Leadership Award for excelling in areas such as leadership, entrepreneurship, and dedication to advancing the mission of FIRST within their communities.

Nominate your students TODAY! https://www.firstinspires.org/resources/library/ftc/leadership-award

 Mentors/coaches must review the FIRST Leadership Award Nomination Guide prior to making their Leadership Award nomination. Nominations must be made using the Team Registration System.

https://www.firstinspires.org/hubfs/web/program/ftc/guide-fla-ftc-nominations.pdf?hsLang=en

All regions, including PA, have a nomination deadline of December 15th, 2026, at 11:59pm eastern time.

Be sure to check the guidelines carefully especially “Who Submits the Nominations” section on pages 11 – 13 as well as

We will hold our primary Interviews remotely again this season the weekend of Sat Jan 16th and 17th, 2027, but will remain flexible to make accommodations for students and Interviewers who will not be available those 2 days. Our results will be submitted to FIRST in mid-February, but the four (4) PA Finalists will not be announced until the Pennsylvania FTC Championship on March 6th.  Students need not attend the Championship to be named Finalists. Note that there will be only one student interview in this process and that is in January.

 

Team Grants Update:

Please find following Grant Opportunities for FTC Teams as detailed on the FIRST Website

https://www.firstinspires.org/programs/team-grant-opportunities

Arconic Foundation Grant:

 We at PA FIRST Robotics will be administering this grant specifically for FTC Teams! Do not apply through FIRST unless you are an FLL or FRC Team.

As stated on the site the Grant Requirements are:

  • Teams must be registered with FIRST and have a team number prior to applying for a grant.
  • They must also be registered and participating on a FIRST team in PA for the current 2026-27 season.
  • Team must be located within one of the following PA counties Allegheny, Berks, Butler, Columbia, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Montour, Westmoreland, York

We have just been cleared by FIRST and the Arconic Foundation for PA FIRST Robotics vetting and distribution and we will be accepting applications within the next week We will proactively notify the eligible teams once funding is in place and open our application process.

 Funds are limited so they be distributed on a first-come-first served basis.

Rookie Teams: $750

VetrrnaT Eams: $500

Google.org Grant:

Description

This Google.org Grant is available to Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge Teams that meet the team composition criteria defined by Google.org. Grant funds are limited and are distributed on a first come, first served basis. This is the 4th and final year for Goolgle.org grant availability!

Application Process

Requester must complete and submit the Google.org Grant Application form for each team identified as eligible for the grant. Single applications with multiple teams listed will not be accepted.

Click here to apply for the Google.org Grant

Eligibility Criteria

  1. The Team must be located in Pennsylvania.
  2. The Team must be registered for the current season through the FIRST® Registration Dashboard as FIRST Tech Challenge Team.
  3. More than 50% of the team are middle school age students, AND
  4. Meets one or more of the following:
    • 50% or more are from communities underrepresented in STEM, which includes Hispanic/Latino, Black/African American, and Indigenous youth
    • 50% or more are female
    • 50% or more are underserved based on low income. In the U.S. this is based on the % eligible for free and reduced lunch for the school or non-profit overall
    • 50% or more of the team’s students are in a Title 1 school
    • 50% or more of the team’s students are in rural areas. Reference the Pennsylvania Department of Education Urban-Centric and Metro-Centric Locale CodesExcel document (see the Pennsylvania Department of Education> Data and Reporting> School Locale webpage for details)

Grant Amount

  • Initial Grant: Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge rookie or veteran team: $4,000 + tuition for up to two (2) FIRST Certified Professional Development courses ($600 max / course).
  • Renewal Grant: Pennsylvania FIRST Tech Challenge veteran team: $1500 + tuition for up to one (1) FIRST Certified Professional Development course ($600 max / course).
  • Additionally, both initial and renewal grants will pay the event registration fee for a Google.org grant recipient team advancing to the Pennsylvania State Championship, the FIRST Championship, or a FIRST Tech Challenge Premier Event.

Post-grant Requirements

Teams accepting this grant agree to perform the following post-grant items:

  1. Pay the FIRST Team Registration Fee within two weeks of receiving the grant (if not already paid).
  2. Participate in one or more Pennsylvania FTC in-person events, including but not limited to workshops, scrimmages, and/or qualifiers, in the current season.
  3. Keep copies of all receipts and other paperwork associated with grant expenditures for a minimum of three years, and shall provide copies of those records upon request.
  4. Provide a grant utilization report at the end of the season that the grant was awarded.

Again, please proceed to https://www.ftcpenn.org/team-grants/google-org-grant to apply

Soon to come Grant

Details of a selective FTC program based new, rookie team Growth grant in Western PA financed by the PA Department of Education (PDE) and partners TeraBridges (FTC 18603) of Upper St. Clair Robotics, PA Representative Natalie Mihakek (R-40) and PA FIRST Robotics.

REMINDERS FROM PAST EMAIL BLASTS:

  • Event registration process, see our last Blast #9
  • Links to Team and Volunteer Resources
  • Kickoff Results
  • Bee in the Know
  • Legislative Update – SB 1419 and Advocacy
  • FTC Pennsylvania Live and Remote Kickoff Event results

Bee good and safe. Next emails VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT

Tom Zawislak and the FTC PA Planning team,

Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org

Website: www.FTCPenn.org