[Stephi Rae]

I agree completely with all who have already said that it is degrading when people tell you that they are proud of your accomplishments because you are a girl, and there aren't enough women in the industry.

1983 is a rookie team, and we have three girls on the team. However, I was the only one who took an active role. One girl didn't show up until the last two meetings before our first regional, and the other had minimal participation and helped a (very) small amount with our practice chairman's award entry. I was responsible for the entire design and construction of our electrical system, as well as putting together our chassis and assisting with the drive train. Electronics have mildly interested me in the past, but now I can't wait to get started on next years bot! Messy wires is something that drives me crazy, and by the end of it all, with all the last minute changes we made on our bot (completely transforming from ramp bot to arm bot in the last 20 hours before ship) the wires got a little messy. I am proud to say though, that they are still more organized than most teams that I have seen.

Our school as a whole is a science, math and technology school in itself, so there is no lack of interest in the team (now). After we came home with a regional win in Las Vegas, almost all 270 some students that aren't on the team yet, are all begging to join. The issue about recruiting girls to the team is that our school itself is only about 20% female. Of our 18 FIRSTers, 3 are girls. That's already almost the same persentage of our school as a whole. Our recruiting, we have now realized, needs to come straight from the middle schools. We are a public school, but you have to apply to get in. We have recruiting teams that go out to the middle schools, but there isn't much robotics info going out. That's our next step in stepping up our game and becoming the best team we can be. Not just with recruiting girls, but with all the potential super nerds like us out there.