Learner Spotlight: Luke Rehard

Beginning with Legos as a toddler, Luke would sit for hours building creative designs, earning him the title of master builder. When Luke was age eight, his parents found a FIRST Lego League (FLL) robotics competition to provide a platform for the development of Luke’s building skills. Although he began as the youngest on the robotics team, Luke’s passion and dedication to build elaborate attachments to an EV3 robot was inspiring. The team won the 1st Place Championship and 1st Place Robot Performance in their rookie year, which catapulted Luke into the world of engineering.

Independent study allows Luke to customize his learning in pursuit of engineering so that he can gain as much experience in the field before heading off to college. Robotics requires Luke to use the concepts he learns in math, science, writing, and even history – in addition to other life skills, such as public speaking, mentoring, fundraising, marketing, videography, and gracious professionalism. Luke’s flexible schedule allows him to give back to the community by volunteering at FIRST events, teaching robotics engineering classes at local schools, working on the facilities and tech team at his local church, and teaching chess around the community.

Over the course of 10 years, Luke has won 49 robotics awards and has advanced to the World Robotics Competition level three times. Luke is now in 12th grade and has been competing in a FIRST Technical Challenge (FTC) robotics competition throughout his high school years. He works to design CAD (with Fusion 360 and Onshape), 3D prints (with a variety of Ender printers), and build a robot made of metal and plastic to accomplish tasks along with thousands of other teams across the globe. Luke’s robot designs clearly demonstrate out-of-the-box thinking! His team recently won the 1st Place Championship and the 1st Place Robot Performance at their regional qualifier competition. Advancing to the Southern California Championship Tournament, they made it to the semifinals, further solidifying that engineering is the field of study for Luke.

Luke, you are a wonderful example of someone who uses knowledge to make an impact on the community around you. We are excited for your future in engineering!