2013 Mentors
David Black
David joined Team 696 as a student at Clark in 2002. While earning his degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona, he returned to mentor Clark’s Team 696 as well as West Covina High School’s Team 968. With over eleven years of experience in FIRST, David now leads Team 696 as the primary faculty advisor, sharing his wealth of knowledge in mechanical design, CAD, electronics, and fabrication.
Martha Widholm
Martha, another long-time team parent, has been helping the team since 2005. Without her, we would have gone hungry, had no giveaways for competition, and never gotten a ride when we needed it in a pinch. Behind the scenes, she's always working tirelessly to keep our program running smoothly. And of course, her famous cookies keep us going during those late nights!
Hannah Goldberg (Mentor emerita)
Hannah mentored the team between 2004 and 2011. While working as a systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hannah found time to mentor the electrical and programming students, serve as the team's ROP instructor, and serve as a Clark engineering instructor in 2010 and 2011. Hannah's dedication to Team 696 and FIRST earned her the Woody Flowers Award in 2010.
Kevin Hoard
Kevin Hoard joined the team as a mentor last season. He will be helping the business and media team this season.
Roger Widholm
Roger, a parent of three current and former Team 696 students, has been mentoring the team since 2004. He guides part manufacturing at his family's machine shop, Tru-Cut, and assists the mechanical subsystems. Starting in 2013, he will support the CNC manufacturing with the new HAAS mill at the school.
Antonella Wilby
Antonella is an alumna who has participated on Team 696 since 2006. She worked mainly with the drive train and mechanical subsystems while on the team, and as a mentor helps teach students about CAD, the use of tools, and design and construction.
Michael Hennessey
Michael, our resident CAD whiz, has been with the team since 2005. As a team member, he was CAD Leader and a machinist, and led the mechanical subsystems. Now, he helps the younger team members learn CAD, machines parts when he can, and of course is always on hand to fix our computers when they break down!
Berj Najarian
Berj started mentoring the team this year. He mostly helps with building the field parts but he is never a hand short for helping others among the team with their problems. He has been building furniture since he was born and he finishes whatever task he’s given at lightning speed.
Chris Spurgeon
Chris began mentoring the team in 2010. He mentors in all areas of the team, guiding students in webdesign, mechanical construction, electrical wiring, and programming. In his real life Chris teaches Physical Computing at Art Center College of Design and makes websites for a large entertainment company with a mouse in its logo.
Scott Widholm
Scott Widholm was a student on the team for the 2005-2008 seasons, and worked on the mechanism and drive train teams. He currently is a senior at Cal Poly Pomona, working towards a Mechanical Engineering degree with a minor in Materials Engineering. Scott introduces students to CAD modeling, is a reference for the history of the team, and critiques designs to find flaws or look for improvements.
Jim Stone
Starting from an early interest in chemistry, Jim migrated through laser‐induced chemistry into further‐removed laser applications and spent many years with Boeing doing theoretical modeling and solving system concept problems in their Lasers and Electro‐optics Group. Recognizing need for the team to focus more on performance, he is leading an effort to carry out analysis with tools like Matlab.
Will Spurgeon
Will graduated from Clark in 2012 after serving two years as team president. He is currently studying Robotics Engineering at WPI in Worcester, Massachusetts. During his four years on the team he specialized in the electrical and programming sub-systems.