# Robotics teach kids failure and mentorship

> Students learn engineering through robotics competitions and mentorship.
- Title: Robotics teach kids failure and mentorship · Valleynewslive
- Summary: Students learn engineering through robotics competitions and mentorship. Capitol City Robotics teaches kids engineering skills by designing, building, coding…
- Keywords: capitol city robotics, robotics, engineering, failure, mentorship, students, news, local, teach, kids, Valleynewslive
- Source: Valleynewslive — https://valleynewslive.com/2026/09/23/teaching-kids-failure-mentorship-through-robotics
- Published: 2026-09-23T12:04:33.1+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: capitol city robotics, robotics, engineering, failure, mentorship, students, dc, news, local
## Helen Sullivan
Fourteen-year-old Helen Sullivan prepares for robotics competition after discovering engineering interest.

> I had no clue, I think this has given me a sense of direction in life. Now I have a path in mind and I’m not worried anymore
## Capitol City Robotics
A nonprofit in Washington, D.C. teaches engineering skills through robotics competitions and mentorship.
## Ryan Daza
Founding executive director of Capitol City Robotics launched the nonprofit in 2018 to fill a gap for kids in the nation’s capital.
## Robotics lessons
Students learn engineering design journals, data science, and communication through robotics competitions.
## Student diversity
40% female, 44% students of color, and 30% scholarship recipients at Capitol City Robotics.
## Failure as learning
Daza teaches students to view failure as data to improve, not a setback.

> Robotics can teach one of the most important things you can teach a kid. And that is how to fail and how to fail. And how to fail, fail hard
## Key takeaway

Capitol City Robotics teaches kids engineering skills by designing, building, coding robots and competing, emphasizing failure as learning.