[matt.winkler]

FIRST has been, by and far, the largest impact on my life. When I was involved in FIRST during my junior and senior years of high school, I learned more about teamwork than I believe any sport could have taught me. I also learned how important deadlines are and made more friends than I know what to do with. The majority of my longest running friendships have been through FIRST. As a high schooler, I looked up to the college students who were our mentors and they are now some of my best friends. I have also become very close with the advisors to our college students. Throughout the years, all of the people from my FIRST team that I looked up to have always been looking out for me and put my best interest at heart.

I went off to work for 7 years and over the past couple of years I have become more actively involved in FIRST again and because of the impact FIRST has had on me, I am now back in school and working toward a degree in secondary education in math and computer science. I realized through mentoring that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE working with students and finding a way to get them interested in math, science, and technology. Seeing the enthusiasm of so many students who may have never found a sport or activity that they were interested in is dumbfounding each and every time, not just the first time you see it. As a mentor to the students, I continually try to befriend them like my mentors did for me. I want them to feel warmth and acceptance from our team the second they walk through a door and realize that a team is truly about becoming a family. While I may have originally thought that I wanted to be an engineer, I now hope that some day I can become a teacher and promote FIRST to a school in a way they never thought imaginable.