District 214 Presents Its Motorola Solutions School-Business-Community Partnership Award to Wheeling Community Member

Township High School District 214 will honor a Wheeling community member at its school board meeting on July 18 with the Motorola Solutions School-Business-Community Partnership Award. The award will be presented to Al Skierkiewicz, an engineering mentor with the WildStang robotics team.

The award was created in 2011 and is given periodically to an individual or organization that has shown a high level of commitment to District 214, its schools, or its programs.

An electrical engineer for Chicago's WTTW Channel 11, Skierkiewicz has brought his passion and knowledge for engineering to hundreds of WildStang students from Wheeling, Rolling Meadows, and Prospect high schools since the team's inception 18 years ago. Both his children participated on the team, and his son is now an engineering mentor for WildStang. Due to Skierkiewicz's mentorship, along with staff and other volunteers, WildStang has finished in the top 20 or better at the FIRST Championship competition for 17 consecutive years. The team won the Championship in 2003, 2009, and 2011 and placed second in 2000 and 2001.

Additionally, Skierkiewicz is the lead robot inspector for FIRST at regional and championship competitions. He also posts regularly to a website answering questions about building robots and interpreting rules. Last year, he posted over 3,000 responses to questions about building robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition.

Over the years, the championship competition has grown from 100 teams to 400, and worldwide there are over 2,600 FIRST Robotics Competition Teams involving more than 50,000 high school students.