Woodie Flowers (2007-2008)
Susan Perryman

Three years ago in 2005, a Lockheed Martin employee approached Physics teacher Mrs. Susan Perryman with the idea of starting a robotics team at Osbourn High School. Mrs. Perryman's acceptance of the challenge not only changed her life, but hundreds of other lives. She believed that all Osbourn students should be given the opportunity to be a part of such an extraordinary event. That first year, about 20 members joined. In competition that year, we won first place for the "Website Award." At the town council meeting that spring, our team presented the robot to the council with enthusiasm, and recognized Mrs. Perryman as the catalyst that sparked the fun in robotics.

During the 2006-2007 season, Mrs. Perryman worked tirelessly to find sponsors and gain the attention of local politicians. As a result, we earned a couple of new sponsors–Ted Lilly and Aurora Flight–and some politicians went to watch the competition in Richmond. She also spent much of her time budgeting and ordering parts and tools for the robot. Because of the progress and interest in robotics, the MCPS Education Foundation granted Mrs. Perryman and our team $10,000. Her efforts to get more people involved were also successful, because the club had increased 40 members, which was double the participation of the previous year.

 This past October was Osbourn's annual Camp Eagle, in which high school students teach elementary students about science. Mrs. Perryman suggested that we present the robot to the kids, and let them control the robot. The kids enjoyed the presentation. As a result, Mrs. Perryman has encouraged the development of LEGO leagues at the local elementary school.

 Unfortunately during this time, Mrs. Perryman's brother and mother became sick. But Mrs. Perryman never displayed a sign of weakness or wavered in her support of the team. She always gave her best effort, whether at robotics, with the academic team, or in her Advanced Placement (AP) Physics classes. In addition, she has two sons who take up a lot of her time. Her younger son is studying to be a professional orchestral bassist, and her older son is studying music composition. But despite all of the constraints on her time, she opts to help her students no matter what it takes. She often stays after school to help her students with their homework. After that, she usually gets a quick bite to eat and heads off to robotics, unaware of how long she might spend on the robot. When meetings were late, she would buy pizzas so we would not be hungry. She has often stayed so late that the school's janitors turned on the building's alarm without knowing she was still inside.

Mrs. Perryman and our team discussed the Woodie Flowers nominee, and decided that this year it would be Matt Laszewski, our head mentor. She was full of compliments for Matt, and was excited that Matt has been here for all three years of our team's existence. When a team member went to interview him, he refused to be nominated. He pointed out that Mrs. Perryman spends twice as much time on robotics as he does. He also said the reason he's been here for the past three years is because of the commitment Mrs. Perryman constantly exemplifies.

The team is nominating Mrs. Perryman without her knowledge. This is the least we can do to reward her for all of the diligent and thankless support and effort she has given the team over the past three years, as well as thank her for influencing so many of us along the way.

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Thanks to all of our sponsors, without them we wouldn't be possible!