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Unread 11-03-2016, 11:31
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sodizzle sodizzle is offline
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AKA: Brandon Sidoti
FRC #1023 (Bedford Express)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Rookie Year: 2009
Location: Temperance, MI
Posts: 70
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Re: Not allowed to do anything on team

Quote:
Originally Posted by adam the great View Post
Finding a mentor on your team to pull aside and have a discussion with about everything you are feeling about this, the longer you wait to have that talk, well... its just that much longer til you look back and say to yourself wow... I wish I did this sooner. Mentors are there to help students develop in many ways, whether its learning how to use a drill, how to cad, write a grant, or giving them life advice. I have yet to go through a season without at least a handful of students asking various mentors about advice on choosing majors for college, help with school work, or even personal life advice. Point being: Mentors are there to help you, and if you ask one to take a little time to hear your concerns, most would go to pretty big lengths to help you get the most out of the program.
First off this, 1000x this. I'm not sure the dynamic of your team, but I do know how a lot of different teams run.

As something that may be similar to what you've experienced, here's something I found out just this year.
I work as the CAD Mentor for my team, I want to help kids learn Solidworks to be used in an FRC sense. I started the season with not a single kid knowing how to draw. I tried my best to find out who was interested in learning solidworks and I found only a couple kids. Then, seemingly out of no where I find two kids who are very proficient in Solidworks. Where have they been?! Well, it turns out they had mentioned, once, maybe twice, that they were proficient in CAD a few months ago. Since no one sought them out, they weren't going to CAD.

These kids were on the quieter side, as a lot of robotics team member are. Even though they had a lot of experience, they didn't make it well known to everyone that they were interested/good at it.

As my advice to you, even if you have told people a few times, keep bugging the mentor/student leader that is in the field you want. Make sure they KNOW that you are good in design and that you are good with metal. Prove it to them. Show them projects you've done, draw out your designs. Make it impossible for them to not notice your talents.

I tell you this from experience as well. When I was a freshman I was ready to quit. I went through FTC without my voice being heard, and I wasn't going to deal with 4 more years of it. I stayed on the team and I made sure every build mentor knew what I was good at and what I wanted to do. I was the build captains, shadow for my entire sophomore year. I made it impossible for people not to know that I was interested. My junior year I was build captain, design lead, and driver.

Don't give up. You don't have to quit. Prove to them and yourself.

Hope this helps.
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