HCC Brandon to Serve as FLL Affiliate Partner for the Florida – Central – West Coast Region

FIRST is thrilled to announce that Hillsborough Community College (HCC) in Brandon will serve as the FLL affiliate partner for the Florida – Central – West Coast Region. HCC already committed to K-12 educational initiatives found that taking on the FIRST LEGO League Affiliate Partnership for the Florida – Central – West Coast Region a natural next step. Under the direction of Sabrina S. Peacock, M.A., dean of business and technologies, the FLL program will join robust enrichment experiences like the 2015 FLATE Summer Robotic Camps program, accommodating middle and high school students in June and July.

HCC has named Desh Bagley as the FLL Partner for the region. Desh serves as the outreach manager for

FLATE, the Florida Advanced Technological Education Center of Excellence, funded by the National Science Foundation and operated at the Hillsborough Community College, Brandon campus. Through FLATE’s outreach initiatives for advanced manufacturing, Desh has been able to coordinate middle school robotics camps, which use the LEGO® Mindstorms® EV3 platform. Desh has been a long-time, FIRST® LEGO® League coach and tournament director. She has operated pre-qualifying and qualifying tournaments for the past five years while coaching for the past eight years. “Desh brings experience and passion to the FLL Partner leadership position for the new FLL Florida – Central – West Coast Region” said Kathy Levine, FLL partner development manager.

For more information on FLL visit http://www.firstlegoleague.org. For information on FLATE’s robotics program visit www.fl-ate.org and www.madeinflorida.org, or contact Desh Bagley at bagley@fl-ate.org and Dr. Marilyn Barger, executive director of FLATE at barger@fl-ate.org.