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"you should really at least try it, I didn't know anything about electronics or robots when I started, but no one does at first, and you learn a lot,"
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Being from an all-girl team, I do not have much experience with recruiting boys, but I have been part of many a conversation where a version of the quoted line is the ONLY way to convince girls to even considering joining.
My question to you is: Why should girls feel comfortable when joining a robotics team? Especially FRC, one of the most, if not the most, technically advanced high school competition out there. Many of my fellow team mates were raised with barbies, American Girl dolls, and ballet classes as the ideal. Many girls that know very little about FRC will see it as amazing, but out of their reach, because they have never been given any method of achieving something like it.
The above quoted line works, because it is the start of girls seeing that it is possible to join the team with no previous knowledge. I would suggested going on to mention how EXACTLY new members are shown the ropes. That way the idea becomes more tangible and possible in the recruit's head.
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I feel very negatively towards an all girls robotics team. Either it's what I experienced before or whatever, but all girl teams tend to get really clique-y, especially if it the best-friends doing it together. I am happy with a mixed team because it forces you to work with other people and it was really fun because to work with people I never thought I would've. It might have just been the girls on the team too, but it was a bad experience altogether.
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I cannot say that my team is perfect, but I can say we are not clique-y. With 22 girls on the team, we started off barely knowing each other and end the season like sisters. It all has to do with the team.
Though we are an all girl team, and I cannot emphasize this enough, girls graduate the program being confident with speaking and working with many different people; the image that stands out to me the most is of one of our smallest, quietest members discussing design with a very large burly machinist. Being from an all girls school, we do not have any other option than an all-girls team. FRC is a chance to work with boys at competition, while hosting rookie build sessions, and by working with male mentors. We are exposed to new people, perhaps not always during build season, but at the VERY least for the ~10 days we spend at competition each year: better that than nothing.
Sorry for the long post, but being a girl within FIRST has changed my life. I have worked with everyone from teenage boys to machinists and professionalism welders to company executives. I dread the thought of a girl not joining because the wrong things were said during recruitment.