[JamesCH95]

A mentor on 95 when I was a student, Dodd Stacey, took me under his wing. In addition to mentoring me on 95 he also supervised my honors thesis in HS (robotics-based, of course), and wrote my college recommendation letter.

I got into The Cooper Union for Mechanical Engineering. The work-ethic from my FRC team continued through Cooper's first FSAE team where I worked to help get our rookie car on the road, placing 85th/120, to my senior year where we finished every event and placed 35th/120. I drove all three years we had a car and handled the pressure well, and was used to frantic pit-crew type work. I felt my FRC experiences as a driver and pit crew member contributed positively to my performance there.

The fabrication skills I learned on my FRC team got me into the Cooper machine shop as a freshman (very rare), then a job in the machine shop, then supervisor of the Mechanical Engineering Prototyping Lab, then I worked with some faculty to create a welding lab and was hired as the welding lab supervisor.

Outside of school Dodd recommended me for an internship position at a local startup engineering R&D firm. I was hired as an intern for 2 summers. I now work there full-time as one of 5 engineers.

TL;DR my interactions and experiences from FIRST got me three jobs in college, two summer internships, and my full-time engineering job after college in addition to making me a very effective team worker and very cool under pressure.