[Oblarg]

"None of the options fit" for me, I guess.

I always knew I was good at/enjoyed STEM, since well before I did FRC. I had no idea if that was what I wanted to do in high school - I toyed with notions of studying political science, or linguistics. FRC perhaps nudged me away from that, and I ended up majoring in physics (and later math, which I ultimately got my degree in).

Yet I'm not really pursuing a STEM career, per se; I'm seeking a Ph.D. in education. And there, FIRST has definitely been a huge influence - I learned more from FIRST than from the rest of high school put together, and from much of undergrad to boot. The learning from FIRST that I found important wasn't really STEM, though, it was meta-learning. FIRST taught me how to teach myself, how to approach problems and break them down and tackle them. In every STEM job I've ever worked, my success was due to FIRST - but (usually) not due to technical knowledge I gained through FIRST.

And so, in this capacity, while FIRST might have nudged me more towards a STEM major in my undergraduate education, I can't really say that it has pushed me towards STEM in general - it's pushed me towards education, so that I can do my part to help other people learn what I have learned from the program.