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Unread 30-06-2005, 09:04
Adrienne E. Adrienne E. is offline
New Yorker turned Texan
FRC #0148 (Robowranglers)
Team Role: Teacher
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Rookie Year: 2000
Location: Greenville, TX
Posts: 135
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Re: The Ideals of FIRST have Changed...

Going into my 7th year of being involved in FIRST I think I can say I have experienced allot of different "teams" I came from Team 191. Well funded, huge on Chairmans and awesome at inspiring all the the people involved on the team. I graduated and moved on to Team 229. My first season with them (2003) was a real eye opener for me. I didn't realize how hard it was for teams with no budget, and very few dedicated mentors. But I threw myself into the team and the robot, and after that year I almost quit the program. In high school I never got a chance to see the difficulties that some teams face, and truthfully I'm amazed that so many teams continue to exist year after year because keeping a FIRST team going is really hard work!

So theres my background, but the real point that I want to make in this post is that success is measured very differently on each team. So yes, maybe some of the smaller, less funded teams in FIRST aren't winning regionals and awards every year. But maybe thats not what they consider success. If you were to ask me why this season was so successful for Team 229, my first answer would be that FOUR of our graduating seniors got FIRST scholarships for college (a big improvement on the zero from last season). Maybe thats just the mentor in me talking but I really am extremely proud of them!

This season we lost 2 key college mentors, and next year myself and most of our leadership will be graduating. Am I scared that my team is going to go down the tubes? YES but the only thing I can do is try to inspire more people to step up and keep it going.

Anyways, after all this rambling, have the FIRST ideals changed? No. Were they ever the same for all teams? Probably Not. But we all just have to do what we can and are willing to, to keep our teams going.
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Adrienne Emerson
191 Alumni 2000-2002
229 Alumni 2003-2006
148 2009-Present
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