[email protected] Mark Ragonton, a Molokai seventh grader, holds the teamâs robot that will be competing at the 2021 VEX Robotics Remote World Championship in May. Photos courtesy of Edwin Mendija Despite having to learn and construct a robot remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of Molokai students persevered to qualify for the 2021 VEX Robotics Remote World Championship. Eighth graders Maesilyn Yuen and Kalau’ihi Kaai and seventh graders Genesis Nakihei and Mark Ragonton spent the COVID-restricted season passing a robot back and forth between their homes, learning and building remotely with each other. “I think things ran pretty smoothly, even if we were just talking online and not seeing each other for like three days,” Yuen said during a Zoom call last week. ” . . . That’s one of my favorite things about VEX, is meeting a bunch of different people and I also get to learn more things about STEM, which is always fun to do.”