Quote:
Originally Posted by ebarker
It would be great to have a beverage or apparel company participate in FIRST, just to help support FIRST.
What we really want to see, and is more likely to happen, is the "cultural transformation" occurs, it draws enough 'public eyeballs' and the sponsor wants to associate themselves with the activity.
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If I'm not mistaken, Coke associated with FIRST this year. I remember one of the exec's speaking at Dean's House at kickoff. I haven't seen a lot since, but I think the idea was to have them help with the marketing appeal.
And to the second point, at least from the story I heard I think will.i.am actually approached Dean (not the other way around). Granted, I think it was because he wanted "to meet the invented the really cool Segway"... but he was excited enough to approach technology, not the other way around.
Granted as the top of your post mentions, this isnt the majority yet. But I think at least things are moving in the right direction.
As far as the original post goes, I may have gotten myself in a bit of trouble highlighting this thread. I want so badly for more kids to realize that its one thing to be a "Doer" - someone who can get a task done that is given to them. Its another to be a "Leader" - a founder and initiator of Great ideas. Whether its because kids are afraid to fail, or inclined to do "just enough" to get what they want/need, I agree... its NOT enough to change the culture. We need to dream bigger and reach higher.
When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who gave me a C and the girl next to me an A on a paper... yet mine was "better" than hers. The teacher told me simply "You aren't working to your potential". It was a lightbulb that went off in my head. He was the first teacher to ever call me out on the fact that I was doing "just enough to get by", and that I wasn't working as hard as I could. I had figured out what was "good enough" and stuck to that. Well, I couldn't in his class!
But I found in Robotics, that was never a problem. I was always pushing hard, dreaming bigger, trying harder. When my high school team started, I pushed the mentors to let the students have a leadership group to help run the team. When I wanted students more involved in the design, I signed up for a CAD class so I could learn & teach others. When we needed a way to show off our sponsors, I learned MS Publisher and created our Patron Book. When I wanted to become a coach, I set up & ran our entire scouting system for a year to prove that I knew other teams & strategy. When I graduated but didn't want to leave FIRST, I founded a new team. I was always willing to push myself and my ideas to the limit. I don't know if it was just that I was that much more interested in it than my English class, or if its because I set my own expectations instead of yielding to the expectations of a school system/parent/grade.
Today we are nervous about extremes - parents are either helicopter parents, or too wary of being helicopter parents. Kids are expected to be involved in 10 different things, and do them all well, to build resumes that will get them into Ivy League schools. Yet it seems that kids have trouble finding their passion when they are forced/run off in so many directions. Its about "just doing enough" to be good enough in everything, without being Great. I want kids to know what its like to really give it absolutely everything they have (because I would bet 99% of them have it in them dream bigger). To eat, sleep and breathe something year round. To find something they are so passionate about that it oozes into everything they do, and others can't help but want to follow them into this Counter-Culture where good is not good enough, Great is all they strive for.