Through robotics, DHS grad found his life’s path

Leader of team tries to help others find their direction

Jayven Brown’s eyes light up when he talks about his time as part of the Destrehan High School Robotics team.

“It changed my life completely,” Brown said.

As a senior, Brown was the lead fabricator, lead CNC Machinist and co-pilot of a Wildcats team that has cemented itself as one of the state’s elite robotics programs with several trips to the World Championships since the team’s inception.

Brown didn’t necessarily see himself as a part of that action, at least early on in his high school tenure. As a member of the Wildcats football team, he had dreams of making it big in athletics.

“I wanted to be the next Michael Vick,” Brown said. “But so did everyone else.”

Brown eventually decided the football field wasn’t where his future led — in fact, he admits, he wasn’t sure at all where that future would take him.

That changed when he began taking an electricity class taught by Brian Young, who coaches the school’s robotics team. Young noticed Brown was a quick study and suggested he try his circuitry skills in the competitive arena, which Brown took him up on.

“My first year on the team, I wasn’t too important. I was learning the ropes, scouting … my second year (as a junior), I actually got my hands on the robot. I was co-pilot and it was really fun for me. I started to get really attached to what we were doing,” Brown said.

The team went to the World Championships in both his sophomore and junior years, held in St. Louis and Houston, respectively. His first year he got a small taste of the action, but his second year he was in the middle of everything.

“It was crazy,” he said. “You have so many teams running around and everyone is yelling … it’s pretty intense. You know, looking back it was great, but in the moment it was pretty stressful.”

Many of the seniors from that team graduated, leaving Brown to wear many hats as an established leader in his own senior year.

“You have to take responsibility, because everyone is looking to you,” Brown said. “It was tough at first. I tried to take charge too much at the beginning, then I stepped back and didn’t do enough. It took a few weeks to find a perfect balance.” [pullquote]“I want to help people find themselves, though, and figure out what they want to do early on so they don’t go into their future blind” – Jayven Brown[/pullquote]

To be a member of the team takes great dedication — Brown noted once robotics season begins, team members would often meet from the end of the school day to 10 or 11 at night, and also on many Saturdays. With just six weeks to prepare a robot for competition, every minute counts.

And after all that work, nothing quite matches the moment where the team puts a robot into action for the first time in a live competition — though Brown had a quick answer when asked if he felt more excitement or relief when their creation came through.

“Relief,” he said with a big laugh. “It’s the scariest moment of the whole experience.”

The skills he’s learned during his three years with the program are invaluable – and they’re skills that extend far beyond the actual hands-on robotics work.

“You learn social skills, communications, strategy, teamwork … it’s not just me building a robot, we all have to brainstorm what ideas work the best and recognize different strategies and visions,” he said, adding that because of the worldwide flavor of the world championship events, which bring teams from all over the world, he also learned how to interpret and communicate with people speaking different languages.

Of course, the hands-on robotics skills he’s developed are quite valuable as well.

“This made me everything I am today, because going forward in life, I know now what I want to do,” said Brown. “If I didn’t want to go back to school, I could go straight into the workforce because of all the skills I’ve learned as part of this team like fabricating and programming.”

Though he could do that, he is in fact set to attend the University of Louisiana-Lafayette this fall to study mechanical engineering, with a possible double-major in electrical engineering.

Seeing those doors open up has inspired him to speak to younger students about the program’s benefits, as he participates in summer camps for children preschool to 12 years old, demonstrating some of the robots capabilities while also passing along his knowledge of the program’s benefits.

“I know what it did for me. Still, you can’t be too aggressive about it … you want to let them know about the opportunities they have, but not push it on them,” Brown said. “I want to help people find themselves, though, and figure out what they want to do early on so they don’t go into their future blind.”