[artdutra04]

Something that I think needs to be thought about:

In general, teenagers think they know everything and have the whole world figured out. Some of these students wear their "were 100% student only" FRC team status as some kind of a badge of honor (at least while they are still high school students).

But one thing that needs to be addressed, and that's how these students think back and reflect upon their experiences a few years after high school. When I was in a student in high school, there were teachers who I regarded as very strict, but in hindsight I realized I learned the most from these teachers.

In the same regard, are there students who look back on their high school robotics experiences and wonder: as a student-only team did I miss out on learning valuable experiences and knowledge had we been more receptive to actively involved mentors?

When I look back on my high school FRC experience, I'm glad I was on a team with actively involved mentors and a 50/50 split in student/mentor experience. By working closely with teachers, engineers, technicians, machinists, and other skilled mentors, without a doubt I learned more than I would have if I was on a student-only team.

After I graduated and went on to college, I saw similar experiences. Many of the students from teams with actively involved mentors had a much better grasp of the fundamentals of engineering, the design process, and other good base-level general knowledge. In general, these students seemed to have a better grasp of what real engineering was like, and thus were better prepared for real engineering college courses.

In contrast, many of the college students from predominately student-run FRC teams had an exaggerated sense of their knowledge and capability, and not enough respect for the math and theory behind engineering. Many of these students either dropped out of college or changed majors after the first semester after they experienced for the first time what real engineering was about.

And that's why previously as a college student, and now as an engineer, I have continued to mentor teams in an actively involved manner. There's a big difference between simply bolting random parts together until it barely works and engineering an efficient and elegant solution, and it's the latter that I've always sought to help teach and inspire in students.

And with good mentors, it's always inspiring to me to see how much high school students can design, build, code, and accomplish.

TL, DR: You may be skilled at karate on your own, but imagine how much better you'll be with Mr. Miyagi mentoring you.