[Christina]

Note: This post was written by Christina Alzona and Joe Ross, because it takes both of our brains to be able to understand and respond to the above post


Like Ken said, it's great to be able to hold discussions on chiefdelphi without arguments.

First off, it sounds like you've discovered one of the great truths (or is it dirty secrets) about human beings, that we are lazy. You've also discovered that we are set in our ways. When you look at the world with those realizations, you get a much better understanding of why the world is the way that it is. You also realize that the world will never be Utopia. You can always work to make it better, closer to Utopia, but until every human on the planet isn't lazy and stubborn, we won't make it.

It also sounds like we have different interpretations of what Dean, Woody, and Dave Lavery mean when they say they want to change the culture. We take it as a limited goal. They want to make sure that every student will have the chance to be exposed to engineers and engineering practices. Only then can someone decide if engineering is the right career goal for them. This still causes a change in the culture, because currently, there are many people who don't have any idea what an engineer really does. This is what breaks down stereotypes about engineers. When you say that you want to change the culture, it seems that you want to break down all stereotypes, all barriers, and all inequality. This is most certainly a worthwhile pursuit, but not what we believe to be the goal of FIRST.

You're right, starting a team at college isn't easy and it isn't for everyone. We chose to go to college. It was not required, unlike high school. Because of this, grades are important. The question becomes, do you go to college for FIRST or to become an engineer? We chose to go to RIT because it's a good school, with good programs, and because the coop program it hosts can be a wonderful opportunity. We felt that these allow us to become better engineers. When we went to RIT, the fact that they had a FIRST team was a motivator, but it is most importantly an extra-curricular activity. We pay tuition to get a good education and that is why we follow their class schedule. FIRST is a wonderful program and doing it in college is a wonderful experience. School comes before robotics. When you pay a private school's tuition for your education (even though RIT is relatively low), you better believe we're going to try to get good grades and get everything we can out of our classes. Our tuition goes towards our classes not towards robotics. By choosing to put our classes before FIRST, you might argue, we are limiting our potential to change the world. That may be so, but by choosing to put FIRST before our education, we are also limiting our potential. FIRST as itself should change the world without hurting our engineers...and by having people believe FIRST is more important their education, it's going to hurt our future engineers.

What makes a college run team different then a corporate run team (at the same high school)? It gives the college students an experience that they probably won't get elsewhere. So why then should college students start new teams? To benefit themselves (add greedy to the list of human characteristics). If someone chooses not to start a team, should they be berated? No, rather they should be thanked for putting in whatever time they do. Do you tell someone who volunteers one night a week at a soup kitchen that they should be volunteering every night a week, and complain to the world that they don't?

The Robot Chicks Union is very important in FIRST. You said yourself, "FIRST is aimed at those girls on your team. They don't know anything about mechanics, or electricity, or programming, or machining. They have no interest in it, either. They're perfect candidates for FIRST." This is why we need the RCU. The RCU isn't there to scream out "girls are inferior!" They are there because it is easier for a girl to join a robotics team when they don't feel so out of place. You can not deny that there are generally less girls on a FIRST team. They're not trying to alienate people but trying to show the minority that it's okay to do something new. The RCU doesn't bring up the new idea that robotics is generally a guy related activity, this is already known. They are there to say it's okay to want to do this if you're a girl. The RCU is there for the girls that are afraid of going into a male oriented club or organization. And there will always be the people that believe girls are inferior to guys when it comes to engineering and robotics and that's also why the RCU is here. The RCU was an incredibly good idea, like a miniature version of SWE.

If you want to change the culture in the way that I believe that you do, why chose FIRST? NOW, NAACP, ACLU, and LGBTA (and hundreds more) all have significant cultural barriers to overcome. If you were to choose another organization (say a model railroad group) you would find similar resistance to changing cultural principals. If you want to make the world more tolerant, you might have better luck working with one of the above organizations. If you want to make the world more tolerant of engineers, then FIRST is the right place.

Christina Alzona / Joe Ross