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Unread 11-01-2008, 04:05
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Katy Katy is offline
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Re: FIRST after Highschool

There are some other factors that should be taken into account.

Remember that every team is different. You should probably consider the properties of a team you might potentially mentor with just as much weight as your own personality.

You will probably mentor a team close to your college. If the area near your college is "in a rough side of town" your students are probably more likely to be a little rough around the edges. Teaching these students that their ideas are worthwhile, that they have value as an individual, and that somebody cares about them and their well-being is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. It does constitute, however, an additional load on the mentor's plate as the robot must still be completed. You are also more likely to have behavioral issues. This can be time-consuming and stressful. Probably the most terrifying experience in my life so far has been receiving a phone call urging me to run the rest of the way to practice as a fight was about to break out in the machine shop.

You must also obtain the respect of your students. This is something you must earn and have them give you, not something you can demand and take from them. Without the respect of your students you will probably have serious issues getting much done. You must also earn their trust of your professional skills so that when you attempt to discourage a bad idea they will actually listen. Once again this is something they give, not something you can take. How hard this is varies from individual student to individual student.

I can't emphasize enough to you how rewarding it is to finally earn the trust and respect of the students who probably need FIRST the most so that you can really begin helping them. Mentoring teams like that is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done in my short life. It is also far more time consuming because there are greater challenges.

This isn't to say that teaching privileged children who already believe in themselves (often to the point of ego and arrogance), and take the college education they will receive (and probably will be paid for completely by their parents) for granted is easy either. While teaching at a robotics-based summer camp my boss once received a phone call where a parent complained (and I quote) "that Katy did not understand the unique challenge and privilege she had teaching somebody as gifted as her son." Despite these annoyances these students are, in my experience, less likely to attempt to injure one another with power tools. This makes getting an extremely basic robot to competition much easier.

Another thing to consider is the number of other mentors. During your freshman year you probably need the power to be able to quit or decrease the number of hours you work if your grades start falling. If you are the only mentor (or the only mentor the students respect) the team will directly suffer if you attempt to decrease your hours. Don't put yourself in a position to have to make that choice. It is not fair to you or to the team.

Consider the mentality of the engineers. Some engineers (especially the first time they work with FIRST) believe they are only there for technical advise and will refuse to help make the kids behave. They expect, essentially, miniature professional adults who happen to know less about the topic at hand than they do. Many students do not fit that description. Forget the "shoulds" and "should nots" of both the expectations and the behaviors, this is simply just how the world works sometimes.

Also consider if there is a teacher on the team. No matter how technically inept the teacher may be (or even flat out inept in general) having a professional from your school on your team makes paperwork so much easier.

Do not underestimate the power of parents that care about the team. As a student I had almost no respect for them. When you are a mentor, however, you will probably see how parents can make a tremendous difference in the dynamics of your team.

Consider your age. I have never had an issue gaining the respect of my students but I have had issues gaining the respect of parents, engineers, fellow mentors, school administrators, and other individuals under circumstances where the age difference between me and my students was less than 6 months.


Remember that there are other roles you might fulfill as college student that will help FIRST. Regionals need field resets, team queuers, pit announcers, inspectors, emcees, judges, people to set up the field, people to tear down the field, guides for people from the press, and tons of other jobs just to actually make those three days of magic happen. That doesn't take into account the setup and planning that must be done to get the regional to happen at all. There is plenty of other work to go around if you don't want to mentor. Personally I find emceeing very meaningful too.
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