Quote:
Originally Posted by dpc131
So, I too was bitter the first few years about some of the robots that were totally built in a machine shop, even as a mentor. I even heard rumors of engineers paid to sit in the classroom. It took a couple years of hearing the same story of "it's not about the robots" and then seeing it first hand.
I started as a mentor right out of college having never been exposed to FIRST. Now 11 years later with two kids under three, I'm taking a break from mentoring for a few years. In my place, three of the mentors on the team this year were students on our team 5 years ago, now teaching systems engineering to the team. They have graduated and are working as engineers in the area. Another formal student told us when she was a freshman that she liked that 'mechanical stuff,' but she was a girl so didn't want to do it. Now, she's a mechanical engineer working on my project at work.
So the 'mentors' in these cases are a product of FIRST and embody why the robots are built, not because of awards but because of inspiring young people to pursue engineering. It's been a joy seeing this over the last year or two and that's what FIRST is all about, not the robots.
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It is mentors like you that make FIRST what it is. There is an I in FIRST, and it really does mean Inspiration! I remember those days, when we talked about "those teams" and that it was so hard to compete with what they had. I guess we could have just continued to complain about the fairness of it all, and that a school, in a semi-rural community couldn't match what they had. Instead, when you began to teach the kids the basics of System Engineering (and we got the Judge's award for that program!), we started to believe - and more importantly, the kids started to believe, too! - that we could start to build a program that could compete with anyone. Now, as we say, the STEM Cycle has come full circle. Almost half the Mentors on the team this year are former students from FIRST teams - Robobees, GaCo, MOE, Cybersonics, etc... And due to this, the vision is growing, year after year. We went from a team that started at Kick-off, and ended at the regional, to one that works year-round. We had about 10 kids and 4 mentors - who had no clue what we were doing, to a team of 50 kids, and 15 - 20 mentors. We went from meeting in a shop class, with old tools and equipment, to one that, oh wait, we're still in that same room, with the same equipment - but we now have the vision and the passion to truly make a difference in our area - and that's what has brought us to where we are now, but isn't where we will stop!
Dan - You will always be a Bee! Come back from your hiatus, soon! You should come to DC and see this year's "on-board, automated weapons system"!
It is a sight to see!