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Originally Posted by patrickrd
... Put learning first. Make sure you maintain an above average GPA and understand what you are learning and why you are learning it (the second part is equally important). If you are doing FIRST and it is getting in the way of your learning or your health (e.g. no sleep or too much stress), take a break. ...
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If you are going to start a team, starting a team has to be your dream and you absolutely need to be convinced that it is what you want. Are you "eating, sleeping, dreaming with that one thing on your mind?" If not, then starting a team is probably not for you. ...
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There are two very different and confusing messages here (I think maybe you have not yet come to terms with your own college FIRST experience?).
Have people started taking the opportunity to attend college for granted? Is college nothing but grades 13-16 now?
My grandparents came to the US from Germany when they were 18, and I was the first person in my family to attend college and get a degree (ever, as far back as I can trace my family tree).
When you are in college your degree, your career, should be the thing you are living and breathing, not FIRST!
When you graduate and either work for a company, or start you own business, then you will have so many people available if you want to be a FIRST mentor. Most engineers dont sit on the phone calling airlines and bus companies to get the best rates for travel, the company travel coordinator takes care of those things. You dont have to connect with schools to set up the details of the company / school interaction, you have your companies public relations people do all that stuff. You dont have to run around like a headless chicken buying drill bits and bolts and wire - you req then from company stock.
This is the thing that most college students are not aware of - when you are an engineer you will have a corporate structure behind you and you can hand off or delegate so many things to other people to make your FIRST mentoring far more easy, and productive, without sacrificing your career.
I know we always feel that FIRST cannot get along without me - if I dont mentor or start a team, or lead a team this year then nobody else will. It takes a little bit of faith, FIRST can get along without you for 4 or 5 years, in fact FIRST will be better off if you give yourself the time you need to really get your career off on a solid foundation before you come back and be a mentor.
You can definitely still volunteer - There are many tasks in FIRST that need to be done that are not as glamorous as being a team founder or mentor, but they are just as important.