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What began as a new robotics initiative has quickly accelerated into one of Sandia Prep’s fastest-growing success stories, with students earning awards at state, national and international competitions within the program’s first two years.

This summer, Prep’s middle school robotics team will travel to Ontario, Canada, to represent New Mexico in the Canada Cup of Robotics First Lego League International Finals.

Along the way, students are gaining hands-on experience in engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence while learning how technology interacts with the real world.

“By integrating robotics into education, schools prepare students with the skills they need for future careers and an increasingly technology-driven society,” explains Prep teacher and Robotics Coach JennyLou Pangilinan-Riel.

The program’s rapid ascent began when Pangilinan-Riel joined Prep in August 2024 and launched a middle school robotics activity club that also attracted upper school students. In a remarkably short time, the team progressed from simply participating in competitions to hosting events and earning major awards.

Among the highlights:

• In fall 2024, students qualified for the international RoboJam All Stars World Finals and finished sixth overall.
• By spring 2025, Prep students had earned an Honorable Mention in ExploraVision and multiple awards at the New Mexico Botball Regional Tournament, including Third Place Overall, the KISS Award, Judges Choice, and First Place Double Elimination.
• Prep also quickly became a leader within the state robotics community, earning a 50 percent scholarship grant for Botball participation and being selected to host a regional qualifying tournament just months after entering the competition circuit.
• In summer 2025, the team won Rookie of the Year at the Globacl Conference on Educational Robotics (GCER) Botball Internationals in Oklahoma.
• During the 2025-26 school year, students earned multiple top finishes in the RoboRAVE International Virtual League, including first-, second- and third-place finishes in their division.
• Prep’s First Lego League team emerged as one of the strongest programs in the state, winning Robot Design Awards at both qualifying and state competitions, placing fifth overall at state, and qualifying for the international finals in Canada.
• Students also found success in combat robotics, earning a first-place overall finish at the 2026 Miner Mayhem Battle Bot competition.
• Prep’s upper school team is also one of just 10 schools participating in the New Mexico Artificial Intelligence Academy.

This school year, Pangilinan-Riel expanded the program by introducing a competitive robotics class for eighth graders, giving students additional time during the school day to prepare for competitions. More students also joined the twice-weekly robotics activity group.

In September, class and club members competed in RoboRAVE International Virtual League 2, which featured 92 participants from 11 countries. The event concluded in December with two Prep students tying for second place overall in the middle school A-Maze-ing Race category, where students use block coding or JavaScript through the RoboSense platform to guide a virtual robot through a maze in the shortest possible time.

In January, the entire robotics class competed in the First Lego League Farmington Qualifier. Students were challenged to develop innovative solutions to problems faced by archaeologists, present their ideas to judges, demonstrate teamwork and professionalism, and code robots capable of completing tasks on a competition table.

The PrepTech Robotics Team was named one of six teams to qualify for the New Mexico First Lego League State Championships and earned the Robot Design Award. The team ultimately finished fifth out of 24 teams and became the New Mexico representative selected to compete in Canada.

Though new to Prep, Pangilinan-Riel has been teaching computer science and robotics since 2008. An active member of the Philippine Robotics Team, she also serves as director of RoboJam Asia and as a consultant for Code Concepts, the developer of the RoboRAVE International virtual competition platform.

Pangilinan-Riel believes the students’ robotics experiences will benefit them far beyond the classroom.

“I hope that the students who are interested in engineering, computer science and robotics have hands-on experience in the field of robotics to help them validate their career pathway,” she says. “I want them to realize that knowledge without real-life and practical experience is not enough for them to see if they would really like to pursue a career in the field of robotics or engineering.”

She also encourages students to challenge themselves in competitive environments “to assess themselves mentally, socially and emotionally so they can see what else they need to learn to do better and be more successful.”

For seventh-grader Sam Repik ’31, learning to design and code autonomous competition robots has been eye-opening. Robots do not always behave as expected. Pieces go missing. Code fails. Progress can be slow. And teamwork takes practice.

“I’ve learned that it’s harder working with a team, but working with a team you can get more done in total, and even though it might be harder, the reward is greater,” he said.

Repik plans to continue robotics next year while also taking advanced upper school computer science courses as an eighth grader. He hopes to pursue engineering and software development in the future.

Pangilinan-Riel has been especially proud of how quickly her students have embraced new challenges.

“All of our past competitions started with just learning about a certain event and how it works, but due to the strong mindset and competitive nature of the team, we always end up winning each one of them,” she said. “I also love how the parent group grew and have always been our backbone and logistics support.”

Looking ahead, students are beginning to form an Upper School Drone Soccer Team with hopes of competing next year.

In addition to this summer’s competition in Canada, Prep’s robotics team has received invitations to events in Mexico, Colombia, Egypt, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Korea. Pangilinan-Riel envisions Prep eventually becoming a robotics hub in New Mexico and potentially serving as a training center for educators in the field.

In just two years, Prep’s robotics program has grown from a new extracurricular activity into a nationally competitive team earning regional titles, international qualifications and major design awards -- while helping students build resilience, curiosity, collaboration and confidence along the way.