girls ?

[virusmirusne]

Megga dittos to that last caller... with one additional comment... What you just said seems to be what FIRST is all about. Anyone, regardless of age, sex, or creed can find inspiration if they are exposed to something that inspires them. For one person it might be a good song, for someone else it might be some book they thought great and were able to relate to... But there are tons and tons of people who just love the idea of robot building. Anyone with a desire to be involved should be welcomed. Not everyone is going to be the head of ASFAB (I’ve never even been inside a machine shop)... but gifted in a particular area or not, anyone can be involved and learn. Excluding people from a team based on sex is ridiculous… and purposefully, strategically leaving out someone and not welcoming outsiders is the practice that makes up the backbone of hated and inefficient bureaucracy.

[virusmirusne]

The best person for the job should do the job... but sometimes the best person for the job needs to be encouraged to realize how they can blossom. I mean... encouragement can go a long, long way... who knows what geniuses lie within the walls of your school... just waiting to find a way to channel their energy...

[MattK]

Originally posted by Cory
surprisingly, last year, one to three girls were always present (out of 4 total). This year, we have lost those three (freshies in college) this year, we have a few girls from another school that seem to be pretty interested in robotics, and have shown up to all the meetings.

/me thinks there are too many threads about girls

Cory

NEVER put "too many" and "girls" together in a sentence.

[Jeff_Rice]

Looking at this discussion, I realize that I may have offended some people. If I did, I did not intend to. I tried to point out that girls aren't just looks but I probably should have been more specific.

I have been taught to respect girls, and I realize why FIRST wants girls in the program. Once again, I apologize for what I said.

[maDGag]

it's just that FIRST somehow doesnt appeal to girls in my school

i go to brooklyn technical highschool, one of 3 specialized science high school in nyc [stuy and bronx are the other 2]

and in a school of 5000 kids, only 2 girls joined robotics. a couple of other show up, but only cuz they got stuck in robotics class.

on weekends, there is only 1 maybe 2.

[maDGag]

-Why is the question asked to "exclude" those in PR? [/b]

i asked to exclude the PR, because it pertains to liberal arts more than engineering

[Scorpion515]

Our team has two girls. We have a small team as is (~15 people or less). Both of the girls are really active. One is a rookie, so is learning, and the other (me!) does anything from electric to website.

jill

[Adrienne E.]

I was a proud member of the X-Cats when the girls outnumbered the boys on the team last year. And yes they were involved! Our coach was a girl, our human player was a girl, I was one of the drivers, and all the others worked really hard on everything! Some in HR, but alot in designing and machining I know that this kind of thing is rare on FIRST teams, even on 229 where if you combine the college students and high schoolers I think we have 6 girls, which is why I love talking to younger girls and inspiring them to become involved in more technical things.

[Matt D]

There are no girls on the Cheesy Poofs. There is a reason for this though. We are sponsored by (and all the members except some of the adults attend(ed)) an all boys school. Bellarmine College Prep is the only all boys school in the area. We have tried to involve girls from other schools, but that never really worked too well.

Please don't attack us as discriminating against females. It just hasn't been feasable. Maybe when the administration decides to let girls in

[virusmirusne]

The darned administration muddles up everything.

[Trashed20]

we have no girls, but hopefully 128 will be our cheerleaders again........

[Amanda Aldridge]

Originally posted by Cory

To sum it all up:

It is very demeaning to only value girls because they are "hot" value them for who they are: people just like us who love robotics. There is a lot to be learned from each other.

Bravo!

On our team last year, girls and guys were as equal as they could get. This year, while i'm not sure of the exact numbers, I do know that more than half of our returning members are girls, and that out of 22-25 people (i live in a bubble...i'm still not quite sure how many people are on our team this year sorry) there are at least 10-12 girls. As for what girls do on the team, the answer is simple: everything. That doesn't mean that the boys do nothing, just that girls aren't limited to typically female roles, or told that they cannot do anything simply because they are girls.

Originally posted by maDGag

i asked to exclude the PR, because it pertains to liberal arts more than engineering

It pertains to FIRST. Men can be interested in Liberal Arts and Women can be engineers. That is the worst example of stereotyping I've seen in a long time.

Personally, I am heading up the Chairman's Report and Woodie Flowers Award, and I am also working on the website. No, I do not build. The reason is not that I am a girl, but that I have a pathological fear of power tools (don't ask!), and I can't hammer straight to save my life. My input to actually building the robot is limited to possibly filing the rough edges off of some aluminum, but that is a personal choice.

There are several girls on our team who help with the building, and our programming team is a girl and a guy. Elyse, one of our veteran girls, is our "floater", meaning that she works with whichever crew needs her. In one day, she can be seen in the shop working with the build crew on the chassis, then with the electrical team to wire that chassis, and then in the computer lab designing flyers for our annual spaghetti dinner.

Girls and guys on our team have always (as long as i have been on the team) been about equal. We have girls who build, and girls who don't, and we have guys who build and guys who don't. Everyone has their role, but those roles are not determined by stereotypes.

Okay, I've rambled long enough. I'd better stop before I get kicked off the boards for "boring everyone to tears."

Good luck everyone!

[ChewyMasterFlex]

I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?

[srjjs]

Originally posted by ChewyMasterFlex
I'm just wondering...are there actually women out there who like intellectual asian men? hello? anyone out there?

Sorry to tell you, but it's only the ones that want help with their math homework.
Although helping others with math is pretty fun...

[Ryan Meador]

My team has about a 5:1 male/female ratio. We come from at least 5 different schools And despite the fact I'm not asian, I fit the whole math homework comment perfectly