Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Chiang
They win largely because their school is basically an extension of whatever large corporation that sponsors them, which is why they can afford to have their beautiful custom-built bot, along with their community outreach plans funded by the school that gets them their chairman's award every other year.
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Having been on two teams, both of which have won Chairman's Awards (see signature below), both of which were not "an extension of whatever large corporation that sponsors them", and both of which have competitive robots year after year, I am deeply sadden and somewhat disturbed by your comments. Many of these "Elite" teams have worked many years to get to where they are today. Don't assume they "bought" their way to the top because they have large corporate names in their sponsors list because it's simply not true.
I currently co-organize many of the outreach efforts for team 836 and I can tell you that we have two requirements before we schedule or host an outreach activity. First, there must be people to inspire at the event. Second, we must have students available to attend to work the event. Most of the costs to support these events have come directly from my pocket and those of my fellow mentors. At the actual event, we mentors back-off as much as possible and let the students do the work where they can.
As for the robot, we work as team, students and mentors side by side to build the best robot possible. When we win it is always as a team, not just as a team of students or a team of mentors, but as one team of both. I believe it is this partnership between students and mentors that FIRST is looking for as it is in their mission statement.
"Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership."
If mentors and students do not work together to solve the problems FIRST presents to us I believe you are missing the point and I bet FIRST would agree with me.