Ryan Fink is quiet and might even appear distracted.
But Fink’s robotics instructor, Brian Young, explained it’s because he’s smart as they come and seriously motivated when he finds something he’s interested in.
And that would be robotics.
Fink joined the football team at Destrehan High School (DHS) his freshman year, but he said he just didn’t like it.
“One of my friends told me about the robotics club,” he said. “So I went and talked to Mr. Young about it.” In his sophomore year, Fink started with the robotics club and stayed there for three years.
Earlier this year, the DHS robotics team competed in the First Regional Bayou Classic at Lake Pontchartrain Center in Kenner. Not only did the team compete, they won the tournament, with Fink as one of two lead fabricators who created the robot used in the competition.
“It was really exciting,” Fink said. “You work so hard, for so long, and then finally you get recognized for all that work.”
Due to the regional win, the team was invited to compete in the World Championship Robotics Tournament in St. Louis.
“We improved from the regionals,” Fink said. “Instead of doing two stacks of five, we started doing two stacks of six.”
In a robotic competition, the team’s robot must lift a plastic crate and then move the crate about 15 feet away, return for another and then place it top of the first, and so on until the robot has made a vertical stack.
It sounds easy, but Young said when a person takes into account all the machinery, circuits and functioning parts of a robot, it’s a lot harder than it sounds.
But if anyone is up to the task, it’s Fink.
“This kid could go to any technical college he wanted,” Young said. “If he did, I’m confident he would be in the top five percent of his class. He just gets it.”
When Fink isn’t creating a new robot, he said he enjoys hunting and fishing.
He hunts ducks primarily, although he has been doe hunting as well. He enjoys hanging out with his two best friends, Noah Duhe and Kyle Duffe, by the bonfire in the winters and talking about – hunting and fishing trips. After graduation, Fink is taking a job with Canal Place in New Orleans.
“I’m going to be part of a maintenance crew there,” he said. “I’ll be working with heating, air conditioning, water leaks and electrical snafus, if any.”
Fink said he’s sort of following in his older brother Richard’s footsteps and his dad helped him find the job.
He also has a younger brother, Matthew, who he hopes will follow in his footsteps.
“I hope he joins the robotics team,” he said.
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