[Lisa Perez]

It's really weird. I wanted to become some sort of space scientist in 6th grade, but then my folks were gung-ho about my going into business management. I guess they rubbed off on me - up until 10th grade I wanted to do the whole business dealio. Getting involved in robotics really made me reconsider. My whole sophomore year I decided I was going to be solely an engineer.

I loved the engineering atmosphere FIRST gave and didn't know how I could live doing anything else. More recently, however, I've felt that due to my experience with robotics, I've gained some leadership skills - being captain of a robotics team and leader of two sub-teams definitely does something to ya .

So now, because of FIRST (and not because of the idea that my parents had rubbed off on me in my elementary school days), I'm going to apply to college looking to study in both aerospace engineering and business management.

FIRST OWNS .