Another year of RuralBots Academy in Vasilați has ended
Some endings are better written after the emotions dissipate.
On June 19, another year of RuralBots Academy Vasilați ended, the robotics program held at the "Constantin Brâncoveanu" Secondary School in Vasilați between September 8, 2025 and June 19, 2026. Just one day after that, some of the children participated in the RuralBots Open Championship, the competition organized by ARTESA in the school's gym in Vasilați.
Viewed together, the two moments capped an entire year of activity.
RuralBots Academy Vasilați was not just a series of workshops. It was months of meetings, construction, programming, testing, mistakes, replays and a lot of patience. The children didn't just come to see something interesting, they came back week after week asking more interesting questions, supporting their ideas with more arguments and understanding that robotics is not just about a robot that moves, but also everything you do until you get there.
This year, 71 children participated in the activities of RuralBots Academy Vasilați. The number is important, but more important is the way the children learned to work together, to try again, to accept that a solution may not work out the first time and to look for another.
The RuralBots Academy final also came with an extraordinary confirmation: at the first edition of the RuralBots Open Championship, the first three places were won by teams made up of children from Vasilați. This was not the main goal and this is not the only way we measure the value of such a program, but it is worth mentioning, because it shows something important: when children have constant access to training, to a space where they can test their ideas, and to people who take them seriously, results appear.
For some, the podium is the most visible part. For us, just as important were the things that happened up until there: the children who returned to the workshop, the teams who learned to organize themselves, the emotions they managed during the competition, the decisions they made together, and the way they finished what they started.
RuralBots Academy Vasilați could not have existed in this form without the support of the "Constantin Brâncoveanu" Junior High School and without the constant involvement of the director Iulia Stoica, who understood from the beginning how important it is for such a program to take place, rhythm and continuity. We also thank everyone who was close to the children and the project this year.
This is what RuralBots Academy Vasilați was like this year: a place where children constantly returned and where robotics began to be part of their lives.