Team 48 welcomes all students into its fold regardless of academic standing. All students are welcome to join one of our functional subteams and participate in local events such as community service, fundraising, and our preship scrimmage. Each student on the team is required to pay an activity fee of $150, which can be reduced by participating in our team fundraising activities throughout the season.
Accepting behaviorally and otherwise-challenged students into our program may present a more daunting task to our teacher, engineer, and collegiate mentors, but it's worth it each time we reach a breakthrough with these kids and the light turns on for them. In an environment where many other groups have turned their backs on these kids (perhaps even their own families), they often appreciate a group that welcomes them in and challenges them to become more and do more. With patience and persistence, you can achieve some really surprising results.
In order for our students to travel, they must maintain a minimum 2.5 GPA verified by grade sheets passed around to and signed by all their teachers. These grade sheets are updated at several points throughout the school year. 48's teacher team leaders then also consider other factors in determining who travels - sometimes we have a limited number of travel spots and must make some tough decisions:
Team Service Time - Throughout the season, each Team 48 student fills out a daily time sheet documenting what tasks he/she worked on and for how long. Each daily entry must be signed off by one of the team's mentors. These time sheets are turned into the team teachers each week and saved for the team travel evaluation. With very few exceptions, those who contribute more and demonstrate better attendance are given travel preference over those who aren't around to support the team as much.
Submission of all Fees and Forms - If a student does not pay his/her activity fee in full by the travel period or fails to turn in their insurance forms, FIRST waiver, emergency form, or other required forms, they are not permitted to travel.
The team sets up monitored study tables for any students who drop below a 2.5 into "Team Academic Probation". We find that those who miss the boat on one trip due to grades are more than motivated to bring them up and become eligible for subsequent trips.
All of these requirements are documented in our team handbook that is distributed to students at the beginning of the year.