Wow. The thoughts and ideas in this are as genuine and helpful as any I have ever read on CD. Andy, thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights. I'd like to add to two of your thoughts:
1.
Only 21% of FIRST teams nominated a candidate.
Every team has to have at least one worthy mentor. Let's read those winning essays in
this thread and get inspired to increase that percentage for next year!
2.
Students should use this essay as an award to their mentor, even if their chosen candidate does not win at a Regional. Surprisingly, 700 teams missed a chance to give something back to one mentor on their team.
In 2003, before the regional award was created, our students decided to make a gift of the entry to Dave Beck because they didn't want an opportunity to go by to say "thank you". I had the pleasure of creating a custom frame to include the essay and all student team members' names. One of our senior essay writers wrapped it, packed it, and took it to Houston. At our last team meeting in the hotel Friday night the students presented it to Dave, taking turns reading from another copy while he read along with his. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. I know winning the 2004 NJ Regional WFA was a precious moment for Dave, but I also know that the moment he had with the team in Houston in 2003 was priceless and ALL teams have the ability to make that happen every year.
I also want to say that the online process for the WFA Entry was the most effective and efficient of all online award submission this year. Thank you Brandon and Dvid Kelly! It was so user friendly that many of us have suggested that the online Chairman's entries need to look like the online WFA process. FIRST has heard these requests and is already working on making this happen.
In short, the WFA committee and the WFA award recipients are some of the most effective and deserving people in FIRST.