Admissions
D-E Profiles

Kenneth Yan ’19

Kenneth Yan ’19 is the president of Dwight-Englewood’s Robotics Team aka FTC Team 0207 Critical Mass. He lives in Tenafly, NJ but the Robotics Lab at Hajjar STEM Center is his home away from home, based on the amount of time he spends there working on the Team’s ‘bots.  Kenneth’s sister, Margaret Yan ’23, also attends D-E.
 
Kenneth tells us that as a young child, he enjoyed taking things apart, unscrewing, and prying things open including a camera, mechanical pencil, or an old and broken printer. He explains, “it was in these moments that I fell in love with figuring out how things work, and I sought to create using my discoveries.”
 
As Kenneth moved up to Upper School, he was able to express his love for mechanics by joining the Upper School’s robotics program. That same year, Kenneth helped in the launching of the freshman robotics team. Kenneth reflects, “that season, I spent Thursday and Friday nights with the team, building, de-bugging, and innovating. We all made discoveries, we tried and sometimes failed, but we all came out a little more curious, a little more passionate.”
 
As a sophomore last year, Kenneth took on leadership of D-E’s Robotics Team and initiated efforts for community outreach, including hosting workshops at the Lower School, organizing a school-wide STEM Festival during the Spring Carnival, and working with other robotics teams from neighboring towns as well as teams from across the world. For the first time ever, this Spring 2017 D-E Robotics competed at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship in St. Louis with Kenneth serving as team captain. Despite this being the rookie year for most of the team members, D-E Robotics ranked 18th overall out of the 128 teams competing.
 
Kenneth’s enthusiasm for his work is clear: “I believe robotics goes beyond the robot; instead, it is part of a movement that engages people, inspires people to find their passions. I encourage you to join this movement, for we are shaping a culture, a culture that supports doing and innovating. This is a culture in which curiosity overrules knowledge, and passion overrules accomplishment. This is a culture in which we love exploration. This is a culture in which we crave discovery, dare to create, and dare to make an impact!”
 
To find out more about D-E student clubs and activities, click here or visit: https://www.d-e.org/page/school-life/clubs--activities
 
To read about D-E’s Robotics Team’s travel to the FTC World Championship in St. Louis, click here or visit: https://www.d-e.org/page/news-detail?pk=874496&fromId=198817
Back
Mailing Address: 315 East Palisade Avenue Englewood, NJ 07631
gps: 81 Lincoln Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-9500 Email: d-e@d-e.org
Located in Englewood, New Jersey, Dwight-Englewood is a greater New York City area private school with a rigorous college prep curriculum for boys and girls in preschool through grade 12.