Senior Isaac Steiner leads the way for Robotics and Chess Club

A great way to be involved at Mill Valley is by participating in clubs. The Robotics team and Chess Club are two of the many clubs that are offered at Mill Valley. Both Robotics and Chess Club are led by senior Isaac Steiner.

Steiner is a Robotics veteran. He joined as a freshman and has since grown to be the leader of Robotics. 

“I joined just kind of looking for a social place with some STEM kids and didn’t think much of it,” Steiner said. “Then COVID-19 hit and someone thought I should be a leader and people liked me so I ran and won.”

Steiner went on to create the Chess club his junior year.

“I founded the club and I had to put someone’s name on the paperwork and I was the only member at the time so I just signed up for it,” Steiner said. 

Robotics sponsor Neil McLeod has known Steiner since he was a freshman and believes he is an outstanding leader for the team.

“Isaac is a great strategist, cheerleader of others and organizer of information,” McLeod said. “He’s able to come up with effective strategies that help the team win games and learn. He backs up his peers even when they mess up and helps the team grow from those experiences.”

Many members in Robotics and Chess Club look up to Steiner as a mentor and leader including sophomore Carter Tollman. 

“[Steiner] helps our team by keeping all of the sub teams on task and giving helpful ideas to the team,” Tollman said. 

In Robotics, students work together to build a robot that completes a series of tasks. Being the leader, Steiner must find ways to motivate his team in order to succeed. 

“I try to connect with them personally,” Steiner said. “Then I branch into something that they are interested in and that can really get them excited and I show them how they can advance that through whatever they are working on. Especially just expressing your own interest in the activity really gets people going to just embrace that with you.”