Student team leaders and veterans, this thread is for you. We need to have a little talk.
Adults, you can just click "back" and continue to browse the next thread. Go on, teachers, engineers, mentors and parents, there is nothing for you to read here. This means you. Go away, please.
Good... they are gone.
You all have many things happening right now. You have responsibilities. Schoolwork is piling up, scholarship applications are due, and a robot has to be shipped in 2 weeks. This is a stressful time. Some of you even have part time jobs to pay for future schooling and current transportation. With these things, you have the added responsibility of being a FIRST team leader.
With this leadership role comes responsibility. Even though you have all of these other things to do, it is also your job to see to it that your team submits a Woodie Flowers Award. Maybe you have already started the process of picking a candidate, as
Andrew Blair and team 306 did.
Get with your other students, and choose the adult mentor who most inspires your team. Do they communicate things well to your team? How do they effectively describe engineering principles? How do they teach you basics? Do they creatively show you their expertise? This adult can be ANY mentor on your team. PLEASE do not overlook your teachers here, as they are eligible also.
You still have 2 weeks to finish your 600 word essay entry. The
deadline for the Woodie Flowers Award is 11:59pm EST, Feb. 23rd. Go to
www.firstawards.org to begin your entry. You can actually enter information, pictures, and a partial essay... then hit "save" and come back to your entry later. You will just need to finish and hit "submit" before the deadline.
For the past 2 years, only 20% of FIRST teams submitted an entry for the Woodie Flowers Award. Some regionals have only a handful of nominations out of 30 attending teams. This number should be much higher. Why is it so low? Only 20% of past student leaders did their job... their responsibility to give recognition to that one person who makes the biggest impact and sacrifice to the students. You guys and gals are better than the past student leaders. Make your mark. Make this the year that 50% of the teams submitted entries. Make the effort to give recognition to your teacher, engineer, parent or other mentor who help you out daily. Even if they don't get awarded a Woodie Flowers Finalist Award at your regional, you can still read them your essay and change their life forever.
If you need any help with this, you can contact me (PM or email) and/or the other past
Championship WFA winners for advice and input. We will give general advice, but not editing and quotes. For more detailed help, get your other students involved. Also, feel free to get other mentors (on your team and others) involved for input and editing. All in all, this is your chance to bring recognition to the person who is making a huge impact on your life... this is your chance to shine some light on them.
Good luck and keep up the good work,
Andy Baker