Quote:
Originally Posted by dag0620
Non-STEM Students: I've always held the position that FIRST has become more about just getting kids into jobs with Science and Technology. While I love Science and Technology, I am pursuing a career in marketing. The thing is FIRST is what helped me find this career and I owe all of my future plans and discovering my passion for marketing to FIRST. Much of the community knows, and celebrates stories like mine. However once and a while, I still feel like a failure of the program due to the fact I'm not pursuing a career in STEM. Maybe we could just work on our attitudes of this program getting students in careers other than Science and Technology.
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I understand what you mean. In 18 days I will be a college graduate with a degree in Business Administration and in the Fall I will begin a Master's of Youth Development.
FIRST promotes and celebrates Science and Technology and yes a majority of the scholarships are for those fields
BUT it takes all types of people to make up a FIRST team. That is why I really like Non-Engineering Mentors Organization(NEMO). There are students and mentors who just are not science and technologically inclined. They help keep the team running. These people so much for the team and gain so many skills you normally would not acquire in high school. Without the fundraising team or those people who can creating marketing materials to gain sponsorships there would be no team.
FIRST may not be outwardly celebrating non-STEM careers but I just checked the scholarship list and was amazed to find 58 scholarships that can be used for any course of study. In my mind this shows that they know and understand that not everyone will go into STEM. This number is sure a lot more than when I was a junior or senior in the program.