[Citrus Dad]

Originally Posted by rsilverstein

Now why do I think this is the wrong path to go down? Because I don't actually think it should be about the education over inspiration. Team 1717 has earned such an impressive local (and FIRST-wide) reputation of engineering excellence, compassion, teamwork and competitiveness, that they themselves become the inspiration for other teams in the community. 1717 has mandated for as long as it could, that the program would be 50/50 men & women. 1717 goes to all the local junior highs to give demos and presentations and recruit applicants of hundreds of 13 year-olds who now want to do engineering for high school. 1717 helped inspire a book that further encouraged people to go into engineering.

By focusing on education, the DPEA might end up with the most well-rounded, qualified, high school graduates in the country, but the influence of 1717 went well beyond that. The DPEA now will be much more insular. It won't have a broader community to connect with and be inspired by themselves. FRC also goes well beyond high school. I now have coworkers who I can talk to about FIRST. I'm 8 years out of the program and still follow the FRC competition closely. In my opinion, this intangible inspiration has been discounted in making this decision and will decrease the overall lasting impact that this program has given myself, my peers, and the community at large.
1717 will be missed.

My thoughts as well.