[Carmine Rizzo]

Team #75 (the Original RoboRaiders) has mentored a Team in Brazil. 1382 Tribotec and 1382 then had started 1860 Cephas. We are from the same corporate sponsor and we all know each other. I have spent about three months in Brazil on my normal job and we have built a friendship beyond Work and FIRST. The key to an overseas sponsorship is to have a sponsor that believes in the youth of tomorrow. This then allows the students and mentors to have a common goal to achieve from both teams. The sponsored team must have an enormous drive to press forward through all adversity.

The mentors had built friendships through our job and they had seen the benefits of FIRST. The engineers reported back to management with a positive response. It took several years for the Team to be created. I cannot say enough about my friends in Brazil, they have beaten us in competition and they deserve all the awards they have won. Team #1382 is an outstanding team and now they are creating another force to be reckoned with Team #1860. I had been to their school and had seen the Educational program which is behind FRC and it is a genuine program. Team #75 has hosted #1382 in the school and we have provided tools, parts, batteries and help. Brazil has a difficult time to get parts in and out of Brazil. We have also helped get items like the balls from several years to the Teams in Brazil for them to practice. You have to maintain your relationship and never abandon these teams. You cannot start a team and leave them on their own that is not gracious professionalism. Be prepared for the long haul if you commit then understand what that commitment truly is.

I have traveled to many places in world and FIRST is an expensive program for most countries. Students who are sponsored through corporations, schools, parents and local business should consider themselves lucky. Many people would rather spend this money on food. But if we educate the youth and they become the future scientists and engineers of tomorrow, then they could devise ways to become more productive and take this investment and return it back to the people. This is a balance and we have to leverage large US and EU based corporations located in these remote locations to see these benefits. I’m privileged to work for a corporation which has a CREDO and states we must give back to the community.

Team #75 Mentor