[Jade Z]

Out of our four student leaders, three including the Team Captain are female(one of them is me). Our team has a 3 or 4:1 ratio of boys to girls, but for the most part the girls are more driven. They would only(typically) join the team because robotics/engineering is their passion. We do have a few exceptions, but for the most part the girls are absolutely dedicated to the team. It's the boys who are more likely, proportionally, to lose interest and return to athletics. Even the girls who don't work on the robot at all still have high enthusiasm for FIRST. However, men far outnumber women in the mentor department.

As far as team culture, it seems that no one really considers gender. Last year, there was a boy who was irritated that a girl was being considered for drive team, saying that it was a shame our team was coed(at this point, we had only one student leader and he happened to be male. Not sure how he would have reacted to our current leadership setup.). For the most part we ignored his rude comments, and when he saw that he got no attention from them he eventually stopped. He is no longer on the team, however, and while we're disappointed we alienated someone those of us who were involved are glad that we give the impression of being a gender-neutral team.