[kjolana1124]

2007/2008: As a freshmen, I was new not only to FIRST and what it had to offer, but to high school, the people I was seeing, and even fairly new to the town of Avon. As a result, I used this year more to introduce myself to the program. Because I had friends on the spirit team, I kind of stuck with that at first. I did try programming once, but that failed. I did scout, but I learned quick I wasn't much of a stand scouter because I had a habit of watching the entire field in general as opposed to my assigned robot. I always liked mechanical, but in the end I did most of my work with community stuff (which, for the sake of being honest, I could have done a lot more on. Freshmen forgiveness?)

2008/2009: Now that I had an idea of what I wanted going in, I became more focused. I did a lot more with mechanical, as well as talking to judges in the pits. I was our team's second driver in Hartford, as well as a Chairman's presenter. While I wasn't as heavily involved in the community stuff last year, I did Chairman's because I took it upon myself to be in charge of media and film. I did our Chairman's video, a video for our mentors, and a couple of other projects along the way. While I didn't drive in Atlanta, I became really focused on the strategic side of scouting, using the methods I picked up from listening to our coach talk in Atlanta. I also began to go back to my roots and talk more for our team.

2009/2010: My first year on management for my team. As Community Liaison, it's my job to handle things like grants, press releases, fundraisers, t-shirts, ordering food, Chairman's, etc. What I like about being on management is that you can be less hands on about things. You're now teaching others the things you did the past two years. At competitions, I still do strategy for my team. However, I didn't do the Chairman's video this year for our team (which is available on Youtube if people are interested) or write a good amount of the essays, rather I oversaw a lot of the process and just inserted input when necessary.

2010/2011: The final unknown chapter. I don't know, but I hope it's as awesome as these years.