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Originally Posted by Brandon_L
This is the part that FIRST is missing - while intended to help with college admissions (which it does), many would honestly just like to see their efforts recognized. College brownie points are just a plus to these kids. As said somewhere before in the thread, some of these kids pour their hearts and souls into these programs in an attempt to grow them and, thus, inspire even more students. Isn't that what FIRST is all about? I believe these are the students that should be recognized.
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I totally agree with this.
Looking at how FIRST defined the Dean's List Award in the 2013 game manual:
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Originally Posted by FRC Game Manual
Now in its fourth year, this award celebrates outstanding student leaders whose passion for, and effectiveness at, attaining FIRST ideals is exemplary.
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I see a lot of parallels between the Chairman's Award and Dean's List (and for that matter, the WFA)-- the awards are for teams (or people) who exemplify the ideals of FIRST. Those that rise to the top of the competition are those that fulfill the intent of the award for the sole reason of wanting to win, but because they genuinely believe in FIRST's mission and that it's the right thing to do. It cheapens the idea of the award-- recognizing FIRST's ideals to repurpose the award towards another end. On the other hand, I'm very happy that there will undoubtedly be some Sophomores and Juniors who wouldn't have otherwise been considered for the award in time for their college application process.
On a separate but related note, I really hope that FIRST will introduce some sort of Dean's List equivalent for FTC in the next season or so. There are some brilliant high school students in FTC who will never even have a chance of getting the same recognition that their FRC friends do just because of circumstances out of their control. If FIRST is really aiming towards Dean's List being a "college application thing," I hope we'll see an announcement soon to the benefit of FTC students.