In high school, why chose one over the other? Like you, I also play the trumpet. In my senior year, I was both a core member of my robotics team and 1st chair of the trumpet section of my school's symphonic band. A majority of the members of 1625 are also in our school's music programs (or at least when I was there). During the build season, shuttling kids to and from the high school to play at basketball games as part of the school band was very much a part of the team's operation schedule. Additionally, since I qualified for the Illinois All-State orchestra among other music festivals, I had to juggle my obligations to both music and robotics. It was a challenge but not impossible. While I was on the team, I was exclusively a hardware person, however, I did not choose engineering as a career. I am now studying to become a software developer at the CMU School of Computer Science. I have not given up music, but am in my school's marching band (or as we like to say, "precision standing band"
) Regardless of which career path you ultimately choose, the positive impact of the experience of going through the FIRST program is undeniable.