Quote:
Originally Posted by Danny Diaz
Yeah, I'm sure the interview session was high up on the Dean's List judges "I wish we could..." list, but I'm not so sure it works well in practice. Yes, the Dean's List people enjoy meeting the kids, but what can you determine in 3 minutes other than the overall perkiness of their demeanor (and maybe generally determine if the essay writer was lying - not that it would be GP at all to do so)?
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The requirement for a Dean's List interview makes more sense once you realize that this has evolved into a marketing and PR award. When working on our essays this year, we started by looking at the stated criteria for the award:
• demonstrated leadership and commitment to the ideals of FIRST;
• interest in and passion for a long term commitment to FIRST and its ideals;
• overall individual contribution to their team;
• technical expertise and passion;
• entrepreneurship and creativity;
• ability to motivate and lead fellow team members; and
• effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in their school and community
We rearranged these how we suspected FIRST felt they were important:
• effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in their school and community
• demonstrated leadership and commitment to the ideals of FIRST;
• interest in and passion for a long term commitment to FIRST and its ideals;
• entrepreneurship and creativity;
• ability to motivate and lead fellow team members
• overall individual contribution to their team;
• technical expertise and passion;
Essentially, they are looking for one person Chairman’s Award teams. They aren’t really interested in students who are good for their team, they are interested in students who are aggressive ambassadors for FIRST. In this context, an interview makes perfect sense. It enables the judges to see whether the candidate really is a good representative for FIRST, or if they just look good on paper. If a student looks great in the essay, but can barely stumble through an interview with a couple judges in a closed room, that's evidence that they really haven't been all that great a representative, and the mentors are just talking them up. If a student has really been out there, doing demos, and talking with the public about the FIRST message, they learn PR skills that make a simple interview with a couple judges a piece of cake.
One of our nominees was a repeat from last year. Our essay last year emphasized their contribution to our team. This was not what the judges were looking for. Once we realized that this award was a marketing award, we were able to write our 2014 essays accordingly and properly prepare our nominees. As a result, this same student will be going to St. Louis as a Dean's List finalist, even if the rest of us don't earn our way there.