Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneYoung
I would just like to add one thought.
Ideally, FIRST teams work to develop partnerships with their sponsors. From these partnerships may come internships for the students, future employment opportunities, an exchange of support and talent.
This thread is talking a lot about the impact of branding, money, reputation, history of the sponsor/potential sponsor. It is also good to think about what the FIRST team(s) and the sponsor(s) can achieve working together.
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So lets but Marlboro and Smirnoff on the line. They are owned by Atria and Diageo respectively, so technically if you got sponsored by either company there are 'kid friendly' internships that they can give you. Instead of working with engineers that design around the production of cigarettes, they can instead let you work with engineers that design around the production of macaroni or [insert Kraft product here]. And although I am unaware of any non-alcoholic production in the Diageo company, there probably is something they do besides alcohol even if it is a community oriented project.
What I'm saying is that there IS a way to work with these companies that we are inappropriately calling "bad" to help spread the goals of FIRST: to inspire people to pursue careers in science, engineering, and high technology.
Pavan.
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