Ooh, story time. So, after being on an FLL team in elementary and middle school, I joined 857 and was there for the four years of high school. Then, I went to Michigan Tech for college, and started right away mentoring the team. So, freshman year I'm taking 17 credits spring semester, mentoring, and have a part-time job in the MathLab, and 4.0 my classes. Basically same thing sophomore year. Now this, my *more-or-less* junior year (the dual-enrollment and internship make it complicated) I am now lead mentor, but I'm looking to only take 16 credits. Out of that, I overall have a 3.98, and I've had an internship running from May through this December.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karibou
Kudos to you, man. That's a lot on your plate and it sounds like you're handling it pretty well.
From an alternate perspective, I've been at 16 or 17 credits for the past two years of college, and I can't imagine myself having the time to mentor a team as well. [snip]
|
<humor>*shakes fist* We go to the same university, so why do I only know you on ChiefDelphi?</humor>
Quote:
Originally Posted by DevenStonow
Hate bumping old threads, but an incredibly rude comment made to me today has had me up in arms/my mind racing, and I couldn't think of a major discussion topic enough to warrant a new thread.
I was told today, by a fellow college student (albeit one who is going for his postbaccalaurete/masters; his first degree in engineering) that, as opposed to mentoring a FIRST team in college (which I plan on) I should "do something real with my life, like SailBot"(or concrete canoe or Baja SAE or one of the many other engineering extracurriculars my school offers).[snip]
|
I swear, whenever we try to get someone to join as a mentor here who is in college, if they say "no", this is
exactly the reason they give. Not necessarily those specific programs, but to go and "improve themselves" or "go do real things".
TL;DR: Mentoring in college is not hard for me, but your mileage may vary.
PS. 857 and 2586 are essentially exclusively mentored by college students. We've gotten flak in the past for it, but the way I look at it is, even though the team suffers from perpetually being about 4 years old, we won't crumple if that one coach/teacher/mentor/engineer decides to retire.
PPS. Also, last year, 857 had three college student mentors who had all been on 857 in high school.