Schools

East Cobb Students Ready for F1 Finals

The Wheeler High School-based Team Shift will compete in the F1 in Schools World competition in Abu Dhabi later this month.

East Cobb students will be competing along with 33 other teams from 22 nations in the F1 in Schools World Finals next week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Team Shift, with three students from Wheeler High School and another who attends Campbell High School, will represent the United States.

The team that includes Wheeler Center for Advanced Studies in Science, Math and Technology magnet students Kelly Fitzgerald, Anna Awald and Claire McCoy and Campbell International Baccalaureate magnet student Sabine Saldanha won the U.S. title in May.

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The girls first formed a team in 2010 when they were students at East Cobb Middle School.

The students are putting the final touches to their F1 scale model cars, rehearsing their presentations and finishing their portfolios ready for three days of intense competition in the pursuit of the Bernie Ecclestone F1 in Schools World Champions trophy and City University, London scholarships.  

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This annual event is held Oct. 29-31 to coincide with the 2012 FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX. Countries competing at the World Finals for the first time include Greece, Austria, Mexico and Jordan. 

“I can’t believe that we will be going to Abu Dhabi to compete for the World Champions title," Fitzgerald said. "We have put so much time, dedication, and effort into this project and we are so excited to have the opportunity to show our skills on the international level.

"We still have work to do, but we are so ready to compete along side the best of the best and make new friends from all over the world!”

F1 in Schools is the largest, and most successful, educational initiative in the world, with 40 countries operating the programme, from Kenya to Kuwait, Kazakhstan to Vietnam and many more.

The power of Formula 1 and the challenge of designing, building, testing, and racing a miniature F1 car of the future has reached over 20 million students, with over one million involved each year from over 20,000 schools. 


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