Movie inspiration visiting Royal High School on Thursday

ROYAL CITY - Three of the four principals of the documentary "Underwater Dreams" will be at Royal High School for two showings on Thursday evening, Feb. 12.

"Underwater Dreams" will be shown at the high school gymnasium - twice. The first showing will be in Spanish at 6 p.m. The English version will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, and the entire community is invited.

The next morning, Feb. 13, there will be an assembly at the high school. Other schools in the area have been invited to bring some of their students.

"I don't know which schools are planning to send students and how many they are sending," organizer and Royal High science teacher Eric Carlson said.

The movie tells the story of four sons of undocumented immigrants from a high school in Arizona who entered a college level underwater robotics contest and won. They beat out 10 colleges, including a team from MIT.

"The movie then tells where their lives have gone since then, noting that they have had a number of obstacles to face because of their legal status," Carlson said.

Present at the screenings will be Oscar Vazquez, Lorenzo Santillan, and Luis Aranda, three of the members of the robotics team that won the 2004 contest. They will discuss the film and their lives and field questions.

Also present will be Ingrid Tay, a member of the 2008 robotics team that won the FIRST robotics contest. She currently works as an engineer and will help give a voice to women in engineering. Also present should be a representative of FIRST robotics.

"We are hoping that this event will open eyes and pique interest in robotics and engineering in general," Carlson said. "We want to show the whole community, parents, students, and other stakeholders the potential that our students have inside them just waiting to be tapped."

"A lot of people have put a lot of time, money, and effort into making this happen," Carlson added. "So I hope we have a fantastic community turnout."