[Spaztik Duck]

As a student on my team and also in my first year with the robotics program, I am not in a position to say whether or not mentors on our team get the amount of respect and gratitude they deserve. I believe saying that mentors in general dont [meaning never] get that respect is a generalization and a personal opinion, However....
I feel that the mentors on any team could never fully get the respect and gratitude that they deserve, because what the mentors do goes way beyond just setting up food, rooms, etrc. [tho that is still VERY important]. What the mentors do for us [as students] goes way beyond that. The mentors impact us on a much greater level, they help shape our future, and guide us in the right directions. They shape us and mold us. They make us feel important and useful and part of something big. They give us the tools to work with and teach us how to do things for ourselves therefore preparing us for our futures. We as students are just the ingredients... the mentors are the master chefs. kudos to them all.
Also, I believe that when becoming a mentor, most are aware of this and that is why they do it. I want to become a mentor after high school, because, I want to follow in my mentors footsteps. I want to give to the students following in the grades under mine what my mentors have given to me. If I were a mentor I think that my motivation wouldn't be the direct thanks that I would get as much as it would be the improvements or appreciation that I saw. That being, when a student is excited that they have done something right, or watching the smiles on a teams face when they win a match [knowing that they put something into that robot], every time that I saw a student get anything positive, or learn any lesson from the FIRST program that would be my reward, knowing that as a mentor I helped to make that happen. [please note; i am still a student this is just if I were a mentor]



[editing side note; i spent so much time typing this that people already posted effectively what i said before me... oh well]