FIRST is the reason why I've decided to get an education at University, why my AIM buddy list is full and 90% of them are FIRSTers, why I would hop on a plane and fly 3000 miles just to meet some friends from East Coast, why I am meeting very cool people from every where, why I am doing all these things with the west coast teams... And most importantly, FIRST is the reason why I am who I am today. Without it I would've been lost, no knowing what to do or where to go...
I've been in FRC ever since the end of 1998, so, that's about 4.5 years. Every single year meant a dramatic change of my life, whether it was just meeting my group of friends, or deciding the goal of my life, or trying out different projects.
Few things I never would've done if I was never in FIRST, which I eventually realize how each of those events help shape my life.... :
Build a robot (duh!)
My first All-nighter with other people
Use machines like mill and lathe AND be the one teaching others about it
Help others in leading a team and observe the whole process in 6 weeks
Became a mentor of different teams in the Bay Area
Travel back and forth on public transportation for 6 hours every weekend just to go back to GRT
Teach workshops about motors and drive train
Manage a local post season competition with a FIRST regional director
someone actually remember by b-day
And the reason why I am spending so much time in all these is because it SO MUCH FUN!!! (enough said)
I talked to many people to see what FIRST mean to them, and I look at the replies above, and got so many different answers. So, I looked at the FIRST site for their mission to see what they are trying to do, and here it is:
"Our mission: FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology and engineering. " -http://www.usfirst.org/about/index.html
What a simple mission, and yet it generated so many different answers from people about what FIRST means to them.
Some believes, its purely about inspiration, and as long as students are inspired to go to college, FIRST has done its job. Others believe learning is a big part of the program, and if you didn't do anything on the robot you didn't fully benefit from the program.
Then there are others who consider working on the Chairman award entry have enough inspiration and education in itself, while others think you have to get the full experience by working on the robot, leading the team, meeting people at competition, share the experience on online forums, and train new students with their knownledge learned from this competition...
The fact that FIRST's mission is so simple means a lot of freedom for the people who participate in it. Its not just about the robot, its not just about the award, and its not just about going to Disney. Its a combination of each of those different things at different degree.
The bottom line is, FIRST is helping everyone of its participant to become a better person.
So, my suggestions to all the FIRST participants is: Go talk to all these other FIRSTers and learn their story. Figure out what other cool stuff others are doing, and expand your FIRST experience as much as possible. Don't just repeat the same thing over and over again. You will then realize how much fun it is to explore different things.
And this... concludes the Question of the Week 11/01/02. I am going to start another question really soon, so stay tune. But feel free to reply if you would like to. Please PM me if you have any questions you want to ask, or have topics you think would spark really interesting discussions.