Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

Well, congrats! I for one am a LGBT mentor, however I'm male so I don't count for the trifecta :D. My team really doesn't know about my orientation (well, I guess they do now if they're following me around on CD!), not because I keep it a secret, but rather it's wholly irrelevant to whether or not I can help them build a great robot. Equally, a student's sexual orientation (or race, sex, gender identity, or any other label that you can think of) is wholly irrelevant to them building an awesome robot.

In all seriousness, our team is one of the most diverse around I think. I mentor a "second chance" high school where kids that for whatever reason couldn't survive in the normal NYC school system. I'd say 50% of our students are Chinese immigrants, some are Latin American, and actually the middle-class white student is the minority in our team. We foster diversity in every aspect of our team, and I think we do fairly good at it. Could we do better? Very likely, saying that there's no room for improvement would be arrogant. The captain of our team is female (and was profiled by CBS News), and she did an awesome job hands on with the robot. Our entire CAD design team is Chinese females. Is communication an issue (with me, the lead mentor, being a white guy who only speaks English, while our team speaks Mandarin, Spanish, and English at least? :D) with the team? Sometimes. However, I've made an effort to recruit bilingual mentors, understanding my own limitations in this realm - by making an active effort, we can foster inclusion and diversity in FIRST. But as many in this thread have said, the effort has to begin with the mentors.

One by one, we can improve the world!

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

Whew. This is a subject that is quite important to me so it’s taken some restraint to let the conversation grow on its own and not reply to every other post. That said, the posts here are fantastic.

If I could pick one thing for people to take away from this thread, this would be it.



Other topics I've had brought up via PM:

Lodging. Many teams segregate students by gender. How do you handle out LGBTQ students?

Another person brought up how to deal with negative statements said by members of the team and specifically brought up joking about rape. We’ll also extend this to include everything from slurs and stereotypes to jokes and off-hand comments. Does your team do anything about comments like these? (I can see this being less of an issue that some of the other things we've addressed. It’s still worth bringing up.)




I work for an Italian company. Of my nine person team, we have one two Italians, one Indian, five Asians (I believe they’re all Chinese), and myself. Collectively, they speak at least five different languages. I’m a white, middle class, female college student who only speaks English. I feel out of place at times. Or like I should pick up a language…

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

This is something that hasn't come up as an issue with our team. When we travel, students pick their roommates pretty freely.

Simply put, we don't have comments like these. This sort of stuff is completely covered in the student expectation section of our handbook, and should it come up as an issue with a student we would discuss it with that student individually. Failing to meet student expectations disqualifies a student from lettering, and possibly from travelling with the team as well. Image is important in FIRST - teams can't afford to come off looking bad, and the behavior you allow in your team meetings will flow over into public interactions with other teams. That'll result in teams blacklisting you when it comes to alliance selection (I know my team has blacklisted a few teams in the past based on their behavior at the event)!

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

I wasn't exactly out to the majority of the team while I was on it, but this was a huge reason I always roomed with my mom. At my school it was kind of an "everyone knows but she's not out yet" thing, and I didn't want to make our female teammates uncomfortable (you know, more than the gender ratio already did). Also a huge reason I'm relieved I have a single in my dorm in the fall - it was for another accommodation (because 4/5 things different about me aren't enough), but I'm relieved I won't have to go through the rigmarole of having a roommate my freshman year, just to be safe.

That said, I don't think it's ever come up on our team, and even clauses in the handbook about romantic relationships were made specific to boy/girl. I don't know if it's been mentor oversight or "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it".

As for negative comments/rape jokes/slurs/stereotypes... At least in my early time on the team, mentors seemed to expect us to handle that on our own - not that I agreed at all. As a result, I usually found somewhere else to be in the 20-30 minutes between school getting out and the robotics shop opening up, lest I deal with 4-5 teenage boys making comments that could be from promoting stereotypes to outright misogyny. The years after my first drastically improved, but the first was so ridiculous that it made me appreciate our mentor's efforts to curb that behavior much more.

Despite all their efforts, and mine in leadership with other students, those kinds of comments never really stopped. They lessened in frequency (especially as some of the older boys graduated/left), but never stopped. I'd hate to think this is the norm on any FIRST team - especially if FIRST is intended to be a preview of real-world engineering. I'd rather not have to deal with such a large portion of my male colleagues behaving this way - you know, because "boys will be boys". (Note: I'm not saying men are the source of the problem. I'm saying that male team members were the ones that most often participated in events that made me feel excluded from my team, and boys are often excused for aggressive behavior more than girls.)

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

Lodging of out LGBTQ students. This has not come up yet for our team and I had not thought about it. I'm going to have to work up a plan for this. Any suggestions?

We have had inappropriate comments made along gender lines. Not many, but a few. In one case several years ago, it presented an educational opportunity for the offending student. It gave me the chance to introduce the concept of the HR department at one's employer and how you generally want to avoid having to visit with them at their request. I never had to talk to that student about that issue again. Other issues, yes, but not that one.

We also had our school sponsor remove a male student from the team because of continuing issues with several girls on the team. I don't know the specifics but I would like to think it might have been handled better.

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

My suggestions as a someone who has identified as such? Continue as you are. Just as you're not attracted to everyone you see or work with, neither are the students. The only reason why anyone would know that I'm bisexual is because they've been. It's not readily apparent by looking at me. (Besides, as I like both men and women, how do you segregate that?)

Since you can't inherently tell what someone's sexuality is by looking at them, and not everyone is out, there's no telling if you're actually misplacing a student if you assign rooms according to sexual preference. If it becomes an issue, deal with it on a case by case basis.*


* I have a hard time seeing this become a big problem. If it does, my suggestion is either have them room with their parents (if possible) or give them their own room.

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but how do teams specifically confront a problematic member of the team (or sometimes says problematic things) without becoming passive-aggressive about it and doing it all behind their back?

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

We deal with it, immediately, specifically, personally, and (if necessary) corporately. Team culture is our most precious resource and has to be protected.

Regarding the OP, our team has had the (perhaps) unusual experience of having a large percentage (>15%) of our students identifying as Out GLBTQ, on a team of about 50. I'm not sure why this has happened, other than providing a welcoming environment. We've also been gifted with an almost ideal mix of male and female students involved and active in all roles over the past several years. Where we have struggled has been reflecting our school's racial and ethnic makeup, and that is a major frustration. We are working hard to change that, but as was previously said by others, it really isn't going to benefit anyone to try to fill quotas.

Not sure that I have advice, but I thought OP might appreciate knowing what one team's experience has been.

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

Make it a part of the team culture to publicly call people out on their undesired behavior. Tell them openly that they are not to do it again. Back it up with "time out" and credible threats of expulsion from the team.

The important part is to do it in full view of others on the team.

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

Without knowing the more details, it is hard to make a specific comment. But. I try not to give specific advice over the internet anyway.

Being passive aggressive or doing it behind their back is the worse way to deal with the problem. Maybe a direct this makes me uncomfortable statement will work. Remember though the goal is not to "win" a confrontation, but stop the behavior. People often say things not realizing how hurtful it is.

The best approach is creating a team culture where problematic statements or not tolerated & help is given to both sides as to what & why.

Assuming that is not working, bring to the attention one of the mentors in charge. This is a violation of the youth protection policy. This not a behind the back kind of thing to report it.

If the problem is a senior mentor or team management will not address it, at some point you will have to go to the school administration, assuming it is a school team.

Re: Inclusion in FIRST
 

I pretty much like all of what Frank said, but especially this. Creating the culture takes time but the payoff is huge. An issue can be addressed as a team problem, not just the problem of the one calling it out. It makes it not your opinion that the behavior is undesirable, but the collective opinion of the team. It can even take some of the defensive pressure off the individual in question. It helps focus on the behavior, not winning a confrontation.

The team culture approach also does wonders when bringing in new mentors. This can be a potentially difficult topic for new mentors and if it's already on the table for them, they don't have to figure it out.

Ivan