Bluntly, 2478 started existing again between 2013 and 2014.
More precisely, Westwood High got together a group of mentors who wanted to support a team and a group of 60+ students who wanted to build a robot. It's nice to see my home high school host a team - before, those of us who wanted to participate in FRC joined Plasma Robotics (2403) because most of us lived out that way and it was the largest team in Mesa at the time. Plus, having a team at Westwood allows local students to participate, too. The school is in the poorer area of Mesa, and because of this most of the students who would otherwise be interested in FIRST can't travel elsewhere easily to participate.
We've got a solid core of students, too. Roughly a fifth of them are graduating seniors (and mostly FIRST veterans from 2403). However, we spent much of the build season involving as many students as possible to both enhance their skills as engineers and ensure that the team as a whole had the experience to continue operating for years to come. Though, I'm sure many of those graduating seniors are going to come back as mentors next year (like I did
).
To be honest, it's just nice to see FIRST grow with the help of students who genuinely want to be part of the experience. And if rebuilding 2478 does that, then we're doing our job in "changing the culture", I would think.