[PayneTrain]

I wrote the WFA essays for two years and have written the DLA essays for 4 years while also making myself available to advise the students on WFA if they wish if/when they nominate someone. The students nominated for WFA a mentor who is not an engineer (it was really easy to do that on 422, since all returning mentors for the 2016 season were not engineers). She was Volunteer of the Year in VA in 2011, serving the Commonwealth for the previous decade as a key figure in bringing to life the existence of FIRST in Virginia. She was and still is my mentor in FIRST and life and I was very glad and very not surprised the kids nominated her this year.

The two Dean's List Award nominees had significant technical and non-technical involvement in the team (a really easy thing to do since every returning member to 422 is cross-trained to do one or multiple things in the technical or community operations divisions of the team). Since they are too humble to say this themselves, they were two of the finest team members to ever serve on our team.

I find FRC judging to be fascinating! I also find the prospect of being the blue shirts to go over the Dean's List nominees to be terrifying and thankfully I am far too unqualified and wretched of a soul to ever win the WFA and don't have to worry about tackling the even harder task of picking WF(F)As. Many parties make great sacrifices to push this program forward, and the ones who sacrifice the most are people who end up nominated for these awards. Those who deliberate over the essays and interviews have a very excruciating task. This is doubly true at the championship levels. It's a given that fantastic nominees will slip through the cracks, but the judges also run the risk of not getting the entirety of a person's character in the essays or interviews.

Recognition in FRC and in life is not something that functions in as singular dimension of resume-building. Rather, it can be seen as a challenge for ones recognized to prove the worth of the merit themselves. I believe Dean said the Founder's Award and Chairman's Award are clocks to serve as a reminder to the winners that the time they spend looking at their trophy is time not being spent doing the work that won them the trophy. Andy Baker could better answer it, but the reason the WFA is a mobius strip is similar. It's recognizing the journey of a mentor.

I remember my senior year in high school was the first year that FIRST put wheels in motion so that by 2014, the award was supposed to primarily nominate juniors. Realizing this, myself and the other would be DLFA nominee (also named Wil with one "L", very uncanny) petitioned our mentors to nominate two juniors that year instead. It didn't really bother us that much. When the two of us and a couple other friends of mine took over student leadership in the previous year, we did so with a mindset that it was our duty to be good stewards of 422 and ensure the program can grow stronger after we graduated. I hope this covenant will one day bear stronger results.

I do think that FIRST could stand to emphasize its R as actively as they do their I, but I hope that everyone who contributes to 422 and FIRST in Virginia can understand that I am eternally grateful and indebted to them and their service. We recognize our DLA and WFA nominees, as well as other outstanding members of 422 at the end of the season.

If FIRST ever wants to recognize more mentors, I think we would all appreciate a spa day, a set number of therapy sessions, or both.