Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
 

Concur. A 1 year break is correct and should be customary (check my sig). Volunteering is OK.

Heck I took another year off after graduating college. You need to know where you stand before you can think of teaching people.

Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
 

This this this this this.

There's opportunity cost in every decision you make, even mentoring. By every metric you listed here, I also "successfully" mentored 5188 for the past 2.5 years. It's still a decision I regret sometimes.

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It's so hard to explain why you shouldn't mentor during your freshmen year (or at all) during college. The profoundness of the college experience is not something you realize immediately. It took me 2-2.5 years to finally realize what I was sacrificing in order to mentor and admit that it wasn't worth it.

For a lot of students heavily invested in FRC, FIRST becomes their social life as well. I believe a lot of these students go through college mentoring and getting decent/good grades in school, thinking that they get to have the best of both worlds. In reality, they're missing out on so much of the college experience, because IMO the things you learn socially in college are just as important as what you learn in the classroom. College has the potential to be the best four years of your life, and the people you meet there can be your closest friends for the rest of your life. Don't miss out on that just because of this weird addiction to FRC that we all have.

As tempting as it may be to do otherwise, please just take your freshmen year off. Join clubs. Hang out with your freshmen floor at 2AM doing absolutely nothing (or things you probably shouldn't be doing). Try rushing a fraternity and joining Greek life (it's the single most rewarding decision I've made in my entire life). Join other engineering clubs (Formula SAE, Shell Ecomarathon, etc) and see how the skills you learned in FRC apply to the real world. There is so much more this world has to offer, and college really is the best place to experience it all. Don't miss out on this just for something as trivial as FRC.

Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
 

I have to agree with the general sentiment of the thread here. I was in your shoes this time last year, actually. I was one-hundred percent ready to mentor a team in the city I went to my freshman year of college. Heck, I even scheduled my spring semester classes so I wouldn't have classes that required attendance Thursday and Friday.

By the time build season rolled around, I had so many other things to do (responsibilities! activisim! 2am pizza! HOMEWORK) that mentoring was at the very back of my mind. It's also of note to mention I wouldn't have done the above things if I was mentoring in some capacity - I may have a different way of doing things than you.

I decided to volunteer instead when a regional came to the city I was in. During competition season, I'd watch a few regionals while doing my homework. It was an easy decision for me to make because I had already volunteered my senior year of high school and knew the VIMS process. I also really enjoyed volunteering. It might not be an easy one for you, maybe because this may be your first time volunteering. Looking at your location, there may be an off-season event in NC that you could go to.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to mentor a team, even your own team, straight out of high school, but that isn't to say it will be as easy as jumping back in where you left off with your old team. My older brother ended up going back to our old team, but limited himself for a few weeks when he had school off. That way, he knew he would not fall behind on his schoolwork - which happens a lot in college. The transition was also easier for him because he was a team captain when he graduated. If you do want mentoring resources, I'd go on NEMO.

I know someone already asked, but have you considered mentoring a team on the jr.FLL/FLL/FTC level?

Either way, I wish you the best, and will be here for advice. If it becomes overwhelming, there's nothing wrong with stopping and taking time for yourself.

Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
 

Our team doesn't allow freshmen to mentor strickly due to the fact that school should be put first.
In regards to mentoring in general, I believe that the difference between being a bad mentor and being an amazing mentor is being a leader and being a facilitator. Bad mentors are like a roller coaster where they provide constant feedback/leadership to keep the team on a perfect track. Good mentors are like the rides with the middle track and only step in and provide students guidance when asked or to prevent the students from crashing off of the general track in a facilitator type position. Personally for me I found it hard to mentor my team even being gone for 3 years after I graduated. I was offering ideas throughout build season, which I really need to work on doing better. The ideal perfect mentor would not win a Woodie Flowers award because they shouldn't be doing anything for the team. The students need to do it all.

To echo the multiple people who encouraged volunteering. This is the easiest thing you can do and commit very little time to it. Volunteer for ALL first events in your area that you can (not just FRC), as they are usually in need of volunteers and can use the help of someone experienced!

Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
 

First off, there are a lot of other threads (ex. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...35#post1576035) dedicated to this topic; it's one that has impacted many people who do and do not read this forum, including myself.

Secondly, my best piece of advice is to, at a minimum, explore other options other than mentoring FRC at your school. There are SO many other things to do in college that most people never did in high school, and many more types of people to talk to and learn from.

I'm not saying do not mentor: ultimately, you need to make that decision based on how much time you can/want reasonably commit to the team and keep your grades at a high level. However, if you've done as I've explained above and budget your time appropriately, then I don't believe there is anything to keep you from mentoring.

A few other points:
1. Don't mentor your old team for at least a couple years. The difficulty of the transition is magnified and it is harder to separate yourself when you need the time for other things (like school, for example). There are countless stories of people where this has not worked. If you are going to mentor in freshman year, find another team.

2. If you don't feel like you have the time to mentor, volunteer, as many have already said. It's really a great way to give back to the FIRST community without committing to long team hours. This is magnified if you're going to school in an area transitioning to districts.

Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
 

Hello!
I don't know if my experience is quite what you're looking for, but I'll share anyway.

I'm with Team 5471, which was a rookie team in the 14-15 school year, and also my senior year. My father and mother both became mentors; my younger brother, then a freshman, joined as well. Our team had half a dozen students; I became Team Captain and Drive Coach (I don't recommend - a lot of stress), as well as putting together our Sponsor Packet - I did a lot for this team, helping get it off the ground, and I got super attached.

Then, less than 6 months after I went to the off-season event with 2 other prospective team members to see if we even wanted to form an FRC team: I graduated. And, unlike others I've heard about, I was going to college 4 hours away, in a different state.

I'm a mentor now; with the ENTIRE family involved, I don't think I could stay away. But I'm kind of a part-time mentor. I don't do build, really. I had a nice break from mid-December until MLK day, so I got to do Kickoff and help moderate planning discussions, but I'm not involved as much with that side. I've taken up some of the Spirit stuff that our other mentors aren't as interested in; I finished the Sponsor Packet with help from the team, and then when I got home for Thanksgiving, I went out with a few members and we got a handful of new sponsors. My spring break started on a competition weekend, so I took a bus to the competition and mentored there. Now, with build season & competition over, and me home, I'm helping run fundraisers.

My biggest project was one of my own invention. I realized that with such a small team, we couldn't, and didn't, vote for team leaders. I talked this over with the other mentors, and it became my pet project. In the fall, I was home for a Friday-Monday long weekend, and did a presentation about the different roles on our team; during my aforementioned Winter break, I interviewed all of them individually and discussed their strengths & interests. I went back to college, and looked over my notes in my free time to make a set of recommendations, which I sent to our Lead Mentors by email. Then, when they'd been approved, I Skyped in for a build session and a Lead Mentor and I told each person what role they had. Now, as I'm done with school, I'm doing exit interviews to figure out how to improve this process.

At competitions, I floated; I told the other mentors that, after being a very overworked/stressed combo of Team Captain/Drive Coach, I felt strongly about making sure that Drive team was taken care of, while build mentors kept an eye on the pit. So I did that - I reminded the drive team to eat meals, forced them to step away from the pit and take breaks, etc.

Figure out what you love about FRC and your team, and, as others have said: figure out what you can do, physically, mentally, and emotionally, that balances with your schoolwork. I've had to really figure out what works. Students asked me at one point why I didn't know this or that, or why I didn't Skype into a particular meeting, and I've had to assert to myself, mentors, and the rest of the team at different occasions that I need to be a student first when I'm at college.


Anyway, that's just what worked for me & my new, small team

Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
 

I have been a mentor for the last 5 years, 4 of which were during college. I main thing is, are you able to step back and take your hands off the robot? I have worked with mentors who were not able to make that transition. Some things I have seen are mentors that work hand in hand with the students in design and manufacturing, and depending on the demographics of the team, that might be perfectly fine. However, what I did is tell myself that the robot and the team are belong to the students. I will assist in design, CAD, and manufacturing only the their request. That does not mean I do nothing, I watch, very carefully, what is going on and step in if I see a problem that they do not. In that case I try not to just tell them what I see but take them through my thought process so they can learn from where I am coming. That is the approach I have taken and the students seem to appreciate that I will hep them out, but let them still make their own decisions.

At competitions, I tend to volunteer so I hopefully don't hang around the pit. I will however take off my inspector hat and lend a hand if something is needing to be done.