[Ebolagirl]

1. I got involved in FIRST because I had joined our school's robotics team the semester before for a different competition (BEST). I then realized how much I enjoyed the robotics scene and I stayed on for FIRST. Unfortunately I don't really remember why I joined BEST. I heard about robotics from a friend who was a senior and I think I discovered it through that.
2. I've been competing in FIRST since 10th grade, but I hadn't traveled with the team until 11th grade. I'm incredibly sad that today was the last time I'll ever compete in our regional. I'm going to miss it so much next year.
3. I applied to the biomedical engineering program at Georgia Tech and got in. I applied to the mechanical engineering program at Florida Institute of Tech and got it. And I applied to the microbiology program at UT at Austin and Texas A&M and I have yet to hear from UT and I got into A&M.
4. It was really hard deciding what to do about my future. But I have settled on a degree in microbiology. I was really torn between bio and engineering, but I have settled on microbiology because that is where my deepest passions lie. I love engineering and FIRST and robots and building and scouting and CADing. I love robotics more than anything I've ever done in my entire life, but I also love microbiology and the study of living organisms. So it was pretty much a flip of the coin.
5. Women should go into engineering because there are too many men in it. Women can add certain touches that a lot of guys (at least on my team) don't think about (like making the robot really pretty). Women and men have very different ways of thinking, and by diversifying the field ideas that may not have been thought up or concepts that may not have been questions will be challenged. Because of this innovation will most definitely occur.