[Madison]

I took a class called Principles of Engineering when I was a junior in high school. It was easy, I finished everything quickly, did better than most everyone else in the class, and got to know the teacher very well.

When I was a senior, he got information about FIRST from someone. . . probably Mr. Breithut, the coordinator of our Long Island Regional. He hunted me down one day, showed me the brochure, and asked if I wanted to do it. After glancing over it, watching the video, and thinking, "Hey, this is like those things they do at MIT," I agreed.

So, I got involved by getting drafted. I'd never seen or heard of the program before, but my teacher knew of my interest in designing complex systems and things (mainly amusement devices, though) and the rest is pretty much history.

I switched teams only when my high school's team had a problem with some other alumni and was begrudgingly forced to ban all alumni, and next year, it might be on to another team as Christina and I try to start one up and get sponsorship from school.