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Originally Posted by Jasmine Zhou
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Thanks to Jasmine for sharing her thoughts from this weekend! It would be interesting to hear more from some of the woman who attended to get their reactions/thoughts from interacting with the booth and hearing Ms. Tilton speak.
My first reaction was I thought it odd to see them there but after hearing their story I think it is neat to see FIRST partnering with more unique outlets. As Dean said this weekend we need to penetrate new groups because our stands are only filled with us. I don't think they are pushing feminism on females in FIRST but it is nice to see more successful females for our students to look up to both in STEM related industries and out! We all have our students who are interested in pursuing a STEM career but there are so many amazing students on our teams who pour their time into non-technical parts of the team and have similar ambitions later on in life. A lot of the media, movies, television shows, etc push that smart and pretty are two complete polar opposites (of which we all know is completely false) but it puts a lot of pressure on females to shy away from one or the other. Maybe this can help break some stereotypes that push females away from STEM.
Only time will tell to see how strong this partnership grows. I still remember three years ago when Will.I.Am showed up at the Manchester kickoff and to see where that has led. I hope we can get more people in these other industries passionate about what FIRST does and help spread our message to their customers/followers and bring what FIRST has to offer to more and more students.
I love one of the remarks that was made about the Olympics and McDonalds. Its interesting how one of the most unhealthiest food companies sponsors an event that showcases athletes all of whom would never recommend eating fast food while training. I'm sure each time an athlete does a photo shoot consuming/endorsing their product their trainers are hoping they didn't swallow.

Whether or not this relates to the topic at hand or not is one thing.
Carry on.