Quote:
Originally Posted by MGoelz
Another interesting thing about FIRST is that if you're around it long enough, you don't really need to have an engineering degree to understand how to design and build a robot. If you put someone that has been in FIRST ten years next to the brightest engineer from a sponsoring company and ask for ideas for a robot, I can almost guarantee that the person with the most FIRST experience will have the better and more feasible idea.
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LOL!
I have
lots of FIRST experience. Almost 10 years. I've worked with teams, hung out with some really cool VIPs, given countless presentations, helped run events, done thousands of hi fives, met lots and lots of incredible volunteers, and best of all, have interacted with thousands of students.
I know almost nothing about building a robot.
I leave that to the technical mentors.
What drew me into FIRST and kept me engaged was problem-solving, teamwork and partnerships.
But years ago Kathie and I (and another mentor named Cheryl) started talking about all the work we were doing on a team and it had nothing to do with building a robot. In one conversation we made up the word "non-engineering" mentor to describe what we were doing (it was a joke - never meant it to stick) and NEMO was launched. It's fun to see how this label has stuck in the FIRST world and to meet all the great mentors who play these important roles on the teams.