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Unread 16-08-2004, 08:43
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Erin Rapacki Erin Rapacki is offline
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Re: FIRST Impacting Job Choices

FIRST is a program whose only purpose is to impact job choices. That is what the program is created for. Yes, it's initial intention is to give kids an insight into engineering/science/technology... but over the years, FIRST has evolved into something different.

There are so many different aspects of FIRST, and all of them have practical applications within the program. A student may discover that they love building robots, but there's so much to keeping a team running that a student may inadvertantly be sucked into a different category... and the student will discover that they enjoy doing that different activity instead.

There are two kinds of students who enter FIRST: the students who already know they like science/technology and want more practice with certain concepts, and the students who have no idea what they'd like to do in the future and are trying to figure it out. I think in one form or another, whether the student notices or not, FIRST impacts job choices... it's only inevitable.

For me personally, I had a recent career change: I had so much fun building robots when I was in High School that I intended on majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I am now entering my third year of college, and last week I switched to Industrial Engineering. This was because of all the FIRST event coordinating/managing I did this year (Beantown Blitz & FIRST Robotics Conferences)... I discovered that I really like project-management (I also had a few project engineering internships). I'm not that great at designing, so I figured I'd be thrown into project anyway... I might as well get a degree that suits the job description more closely.

As a result? I might be working at Kennedy Space Center next year from jan-june for coop as a project engineer. This is my dream job! (And I'll only be 20! )

I love FIRST.
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BUZZ 175 (01, 02) - NUTRONS 125 (03, 04) - QUEEN 1975 (06)
Beantown Blitz Founder (04) - FIRST Robotics Conferences (04) - Boston Regional Volunteer Coordinator (06)
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