[nicolejoie]

I am a graduating senior this year and honestly, leaving FIRST will probably be one of the hardest things I will have to do before graduating. I joined FIRST in 8th grade through FLL and then moved to FRC in high school. So that is a total of 5 years in this wonderful program. FIRST has been a huge part of my life and I have no doubt that without it, I would not be the woman I am today.

Last year, our team lost a huge amount of people from our team due to them all graduating. All but one of our department leads was a senior and we thought we would have a hard time trying to pick up where they left off. Luckly, our team also has a great FTC group that we use to train freshman and sophomore members before they join FRC. The seniors who left were missed but the new members were able to pick up right where they left off without skipping a beat.

I think the only subgroup that will hurt after my class leaves is our Program Management/Media Department (only one member in this group is not a senior). Hopefully we can recruit more people soon!

I am planning to come back and mentor my team during my breaks in college and maybe even mentor a newer FRC team near my college. This year may be the last year I am able to participant in FIRST as a student but I will definitely find ways to keep FIRST close to me.