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Re: Being a FIRST Alumni
I agree with what everyone else is saying. Oftentimes taking a step back at least for a short period of time, (whether a full break or volunteering) gives you a completely different perspective of FIRST than what you would get as a student on a team. It sounds to me like you want to mentor a team you are an alum of. Let me just tell you, that is one of the toughest ways to learn how to mentor. Not only are you trying to figure your own life out (because trust me, the first year of college will change you), trying to figure out your new place on the team, the students have to adjust to you not being their peer, AND the other mentors have to adjust to seeing you as 'one of them'. Each of these is quite difficult. But it can be done. I would not advise taking on a full mentor role your first year, or even in your college years. You've got to remember that school work comes first, and you just don't have the workfield experience the older adult mentors have, yet. However, perhaps you can work with the other mentors to find a way you can be sort of an apprentice mentor. That way, you can help with a specific area, that requires less time commitment, somewhat like a contractor.
I don't say any of this to discourage you from mentoring; I was told much of this when I became a FIRST alumni, and I blew it off. Looking back I realize how wise the people were, who told me to back off a bit from my daily direct involvement in FIRST. Mentoring is incredibly rewarding, but it takes time to adjust to 'growing up', and others adjusting to you 'growing up' as well.
I like what they said about maybe helping with The Blue Alliance. For me, after mentoring for a year, I got the opportunity to mentor some teams in Australia with Robots in the Outback. There, I saw a completely different side of FIRST. Getting to experience that, really helped me see what I had missed when I was a student. So for you, getting involved in FIRST in a completely new way can also really help you learn more about FIRST and what you're passionate about, before trying to jump all in as an 'adult'.
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