[tim-tim]

I have been part of two and have served three different roles total.

While a student I was on 836 and we pushed to be student led and run. As student team leaders we would be very hesitant on taking input from mentors and running with it. We continually questioned every decision or idea that was brought up. And guess what, the mentors did the same thing to us. While this often times made processes very long, it allowed for better exploration of problems and their solutions. Time spent on any one task was the drawback. However, lessons learned and knowledge gained through this method were amazing. Almost everybody was on the same page when a decision was made (everyone knew the why we chose 'A' over 'B' and 'C'). I graduated in '07 and went to VT.

While at VT I have had the luxury of helping another team 401. This team runs very differently than my high school team. The team is predominantly student led and built with little help from 'mentors'/'teachers and volunteers'. I am distinguishing between mentors and teacher and volunteers deliberately. The 'mentors' for the team are senior mechanical engineering students from VT (and new this year senior education students). Over the past two years I have been involved, I am the only mentor that has returned, and the ONLY one of the 18 (combined) with FIRST experience. The learning curve is just as steep for mentors as it is for students. The teachers and volunteers are just that, teachers and parents. The teachers stay constant from year to year, but the parents often time change from year to year, and there is not a high retention rate of parents whose children graduate. Therefore, it is important that the students are in charge of most things. The role of the mentors from VT is to guide the students through an educated process to make decisions, the Engineering Design Process. The teachers are there for moral support and often times provide some guidance, but it is really up to the students. This has been an eye opening experience.

So my third role, was/is a long distance mentor of 836 for the past 5 years. Boy hasn't the team changed in the past years. The main thing that has changed is that mentors and students are now working along side each other to better understand the problem and develop solutions. The students and mentors are building off of each other. There is no longer the divide between the students and mentors. We are also fortunate enough to have a large portion of our mentors return each year; and enough to have 2:1 ratio of students to mentors which definitely helps the students.

The main thing to remember is that we all learn from each other. Working together makes the seemingly impossible a reality.

Feel free to ask for any specifics, or if you need more clarification.

-Tim