[Al Skierkiewicz]

Define success?!?
This is one of the great variables of the universe. If you have a student pick up a drill for the first time and drill a hole for a pop rivet, have you not achieved success? If you have made male and female students aware that this competition has no gender bias i.e. both can build, program, drive have you not achieved success? If you win, but students never worked on the robot or participated in team activities, did you achieve success? If you lose and every student goes to college have you succeeded? In my mind this program is not about great miracles, although they happen from time to time. It is about the quiet events that happen everyday. Those things are too small to measure in the BIG picture.

I realized a long time ago that it wasn't one person who turned me into what I am today. It is the thousands of people who have "bumped" me towards the path I now walk. I thank the teacher who encouraged me, the cousin who suggested, the interviewer who didn't interview me, the brother who smiled at me, the parents who provided for me. I thank the workers who hauled coal and dug ditches when I was younger for showing me hard jobs. I thank the optometrist who said I could not become a pilot. (not to mention air sickness.) The list goes on and on.

As to the student who professed being on the team to go to Florida, did he not learn that working with others does have it's rewards? Did he not see and learn and experience new things while in the nationals? I can hear you thinking "Yea right, we have a guy on our team just like that!" But do you know for sure he didn't get something out of the experience?

I know that we are successful if we get one student to decide on an engineering career, but we are also successful if we get a student to realize that engineering is not for them. With the many opportunities a person is faced with today, being able to narrow the choices is very important. Still more important is the self confidence that being part of a team gives, the ability to perform a function and be recognized for the effort. The ability to achieve goals, no matter how small, will lead to bigger things. I challenge students to learn just one new thing each day, something I have challenged myself to do. Do not go to sleep if you haven't achieved that goal. It's not that hard, but for someone on a team it happens naturally everyday.

A wise man once related this proverb...
A man met someone, and they exchanged dollars, when they parted, they each had a dollar.
A man met someone, and they exchanged ideas, when they parted, they each had two ideas.

Good luck everyone,