[Bill Gold]

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

How is your experience in FIRST?

I’ll start from the beginning. My first FRC season was back in 2000 as a junior in high school. Our team was led at the time by my former Physics teacher Eric Stokely. We didn’t really have any student leadership that year. No team captain per say. In 2001, as a senior, I was one of our team’s captains and pretty much the only member who went out and met / became friends with people on other teams. After the 2001 season, Eric Stokely announced that he was moving to the Seattle area and that he wouldn’t be back the following year. We scrambled around to try to find another faculty member to take his place as the team’s advisor, but we had no success. A retired EE, Dr. Harry Garland, volunteered to lead the team during the 2002 FRC season. In 2002 I came back as a “college mentor” and helped with strategy, design, and fabrication. Dr. Garland returned as the team’s advisor (still no faculty members) for the 2003 build period, and I again helped with strategy, design, and fabrication. This season is different, though. Dr. Garland has been busy with a company that he started up in the past 18 months, and has been unable to lead our team. I officially became the “Lead Mentor” last fall.

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

How involved are you in FIRST?

I probably put in about 150 or so man hours during the 2000 build period.

I probably put in about 200 or so man hours during the 2001 build period. I also helped setup at the Silicon Valley Regional.

In 2002 I put in over 400 man hours of work (twice the amount I had done the previous year) during the build period, and roughly $4,000 of my own money (against the advice of people like Jason Morrella). In 2002 I volunteered at both the Silicon Valley Regional and the Southern California Regional.

In 2003, for the second straight season, I put in over 400 man hours of work during the build period, and more than $2,500 of my own money. In 2003 I volunteered at the Sacramento Regional, Southern California Regional, and The Championship Event.

In 2004 I, yet again, put in over 400 man hours of work during the build period, but only $500 or so (because my brother Jim foot the bill for roughly $1,500 worth of materials). I’m going to be volunteering at the Sacramento Regional this week.

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

How is FIRST affecting your school work?

My involvement in FIRST makes Spring Semester pretty much impossible to deal with. I’ve never been a fulltime student during the Spring any of the years I’ve been a college mentor. I would have failed so many classes had I taken them. Not being a fulltime student, I was summoned to jury duty for the week of the Sacramento Regional, but I was lucky enough that they granted my request for a postponement. *phew*

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

Do you honestly thing college students can handle the load of being a student, and being a team leader?

It depends on what being a “team leader” entails on your team. If it’s anything like being a team leader on 258, then there’s not a chance in hell a college student could handle that load, which is why I’m not a fulltime student. If you don’t have to deal with every aspect of the team, then there’s a chance that you can take classes while guiding a team through a build, but I would definitely not suggest it. I would be too afraid of the nights where you lay in bed for hours sweating and thinking about all the things you need to get done the next day, all the things you need to design or buy or beat out of the other people on your team. I hate that feeling, and I’ve felt it way too much this year.

Originally Posted by Ken Leung

Do you recommend other High School graduates to become a college FIRST mentor? Why or why not?

Mentoring a team is tons of fun when you can focus on whatever aspect you like about FIRST. If you can focus on one or two things, then mentoring can be one of the greatest experiences of your life. Having the money to pay for your team’s materials (not out of your own pocket) is even better. But if I was able to just focus on designing and machining while teaching and not worry about ordering things, delegating jobs, making sure everyone was on task, etc. then I would be feeling great and I could probably be a fulltime student.

But sort of like what JVN said earlier, whenever I hear Dean’s speech about college kids going out and starting a team or helping a team or getting their college / employer to start a team I feel like screaming. It’s a ton to ask of a person who should try to focus on their education, and getting acclimatized to their college.

On a side note... I was so upset when Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers announced they would only gave veteran teams grants if they mentored a rookie team. This started up a lot of teams out here in California over a 2 year period, but then when KPC&B backed down their donations this past year a lot of teams went under. They forced an expansion that couldn’t be sustained without their support, and then (as far as I can see) they just walked away and left 15-20 teams to perish or otherwise suffer. I saw this coming back in 2001 when they announced this type of sponsorship. I can see similar things happening to college student founded teams in the future (especially teams where the college students run the team). If for some reason the college mentor supply runs out, or isn’t constantly replenished each year the team runs the risk of losing its leadership / design assistance / machining facilities / etc. There are some pretty scary scenarios that could play out in the next 5 years or so for some current teams and some future teams.


I would write more, but I can't really think of what to say at the moment (and I need to drive to Sacramento in 7 hours).