A Nansemond River High School junior has been selected as the inaugural state president of a student council that will advise the VirginiaFIRST Board of Directors.

“Since VirginiaFIRST has a board of directors, they decided they wanted a student council so that the students had a voice,” said Logan Crews, who was named to the post last month.

“We (students on the council) are going to list what we are having problems with and address it to the board, so the board can create policies and rules to address problems.”

VirginiaFIRST is the regional arm of an international nonprofit working to motivate young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering.

It runs two Lego leagues, for kindergarten through third grade and fourth through eighth grades, and, both for grades nine through 12, a Tech Challenge and a robotics competition.

Crews was selected president of the student council, with Virginia being the first state to implement the model that will now be followed by others, during a competition at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“We had a student meeting before the board meeting, and they asked (whether) anyone … would like to be part of the (student) board,” she said, adding that she was subsequently selected as the president after expressing her interest.

The organization is moving from one region representing all of Virginia toward a new model with several distinct districts, Crews said, adding that she would help oversee the transition.

“The first thing we are going to raise is snow days,” she said. “We only have six weeks to build a robot, and this year we were reduced to four weeks.

“Since we work Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, if we weren’t in school on Friday due to snow, then we weren’t allowed to work on Saturday.”

Sponsorship of teams is another issue the students will raise, Crews said. Robot kits cost $5,000, she said, and other costs include transportation, accommodation and food when attending competitions.

“We got a hardship grant from the FIRST Robotics Competition, (but) a lot of the other teams are having trouble,” she said.

Crews, whose presidential term is one year, said she didn’t know exactly when she would be putting these issues to the board, “but we are going to do monthly video conference with the vice president and secretary to talk about the issues that need to go in front of the board.”

“It’s an honor, and I’m a little bit nervous about it, but I feel we can get new regulations put in place, because I do fight for what I believe in,” she added.