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It's bigger than engineering
I think FIRST does much more than just inspire some kids to study engineering in college. It teaches us all, even the old ones like me, to work with the time, talents, tools, and things that are available to us, to attack a challenge as a team. Of course technics is the central theme, but just as each person on a team brings a different contribution, each person takes away a unique lesson.
It is important to celebrate science and technology, because as Woody Flowers has said so many times, "we get the best of what we celebrate." But that celebration does not always lead to becoming an engineer, scientist, technician, machinist, mechanic, etc. It can also lead to becoming a better journalist, entrepenuer, artist, pilot, veterinarian, teacher,...(insert your favorite career here), than you would have been without the FIRST experience.
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Richard Wallace
Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
 since 2003
I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)
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