I started in 2005, when I notice Georgia Tech put up FIRST flyers around campus. Given that I'd kept my local year-round job through the summers while taking extra classes, I didn't have any internships under my belt. So I started mentoring. I learned quite a bit.
7 years later, after 6 years in the 'real world', I find it very concerning that many upcoming adults expect there to be some magic wand that whisks their problems away. This is deduced from what I read in the news, the way secondary education evolved in the mid-2000's, and from a few interesting peer relationships I've had over the years.
I continue to mentor in FIRST because:
- It's fun (if it's ever not fun I'll find another way to mentor youth)
- There's some satisfaction in knowing I've helped upcoming youth become better problem solvers, regardless of whether or not they're strictly engineers
- There are slim pickins for leadership roles and non-contract technical training at work, even on my own time. Mentoring FRC is essentially the same as both of those in one package.