by Jonathan Spalten
Another month, another alumni for us to spotlight. This month, we’ll be shining the spotlight on an alumna you’ve seen mentioned before in her capacity as the current President of the Alumni Association: Sarah Storer. Sarah graduated from Georgia Tech in 2019 with a B.S. in Computer Science. During her time in RoboJackets, Sarah was involved in many teams and took on many different positions. She started as a BattleBots member, jumped to RoboRacing, and was involved in both Outreach and RoboRacing until she became more involved in leadership. Speaking of leadership, Sarah wore many hats during her time, including Outreach Project Manager, Software Training Lead, RoboRacing Mechanical Lead, and Volunteer Coordinator, and wore a few concurrently.
Nowadays, Sarah lives in Seattle and works at Microsoft. Most of her projects are focused on “writing features and tests for new sensors that will be out on the market soon!” In her spare time, she takes care of her 100 lb Great Dane puppy, and “sailing when the weather is warm, and indoor bouldering when the weather is not so warm.”
We also asked Sarah what lessons she learned in RoboJackets that still serve her to this day. Here’s what she had to say:
I absolutely credit the lessons I learned in RoboJackets for how successful I am in the “real world”! RoboJackets taught me discipline, how to care for others, strong leadership skills from leading people with diverse skill sets, how to manage a budget, how to organize an event for 100+ people, and most of all how to believe in myself. These skills have come in handy when I’ve needed to step up or speak up at work, code in a large project touched by 30+ people, or network. Almost everything about my job is easier because of my time in RoboJackets.
Finally, as is customary, we wanted to ask her for her favorite memory from RoboJackets:
My favorite memory in RoboJackets has changed over the years. Currently, because I’m old [author’s note: relatively speaking], my favorite memory is of my last time in the shop. It was really impactful walking through the rooms for the last time before graduating and moving out of Atlanta. It might sound cheesy but it’s almost like the walls of the shop spoke and reminded me of all the long nights, early mornings, friends made, and cookout eaten over the last 4 years. There were a lot of personal ups and downs through my time at RoboJackets but the people were always there for me and the shop was always a home for me no matter what. I will always treasure that.