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A Free Trip to Disney World
Seriously, it was a free trip to Disney World that got me involved with FIRST.
When I was growing up, I didn't get a lot of opportunity to travel and see things. When I first got involved with FIRST, I was about 8 months out of college and still up to my ears in college debt. Then when I heard I could get a trip to Disney World out of the deal, I said, "what at heck (or something like that), I don't have a lot going on in the winter and I could put up with some extra work to go on a trip." Of course, once the project got rolling, I became hooked.
Now, I could really care less if I never got to go to Disney World again. I do it for a lot of reasons. One is that I'm an extremely competitive person and it's a good outlet for me to get it out of my system. Second is that I enjoy working with the students and showing them how interesting math can be. Third, is that I enjoy meeting all of the people involved in FIRST. My best friend in the Detroit area I met through our FIRST team. Moving to a big city from a small town and being a 4-hour drive from all of your family and friends can be difficult for a while. It was nice to be able to meet some new people.
One serious point to note in all of this is that Disney really does get a lot of people started in FIRST. People need to be careful when they say that we should forget about Disney and just do it at the GeorgiaDome or something like that. FIRST still needs the "hook" of Disney to get a lot of the first-timers. Now, if FIRST were on TV like BattleBots, it would be a different story, but that's been discussed to death on another thread.
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