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Fairly open acceptance of anyone
Our team has a recruiting process, but not an application process. We pretty much take any student who wants to join, as long as they are a student of Kokomo High School or a son/daughter of a Delphi employee who is an active TechnoKat coach.
Currently, we don't have a minimum GPA to be on the team... but we have requirements for a student to be active on the team (per school rules).
Also... we have some fairly tough requirements for students when it comes to competition travel. If a student gets any C- or below in any of their classes, then they can't travel to a competition. This made a few students not attend the Championships and a few more didn't get the grades to go to Regionals.
The main reason for this is because the students are taking time away from school to attend these FIRST competitions. For many of them, these requirements are the first ones that they are dealing with and they are beginning to learn good study habits. For the most part, the students have buckled down and gotten better grades in order to meet these requirements.
Also, there are a few cases where students don't make grades all year and can't attend any of the competitions. While it's tough for these students to not attend a competition, they are still on the team and can attend work sessions and meetings.
We also have study tables which help the kids somewhat... we need to expand this for next year and do more inter-team tutoring, I think.
Grades are important to our team. We have tended to attract all kinds of students, not just the "A" students. We REALLY drive home that grades are important and that the good study habits that these students are forming now are excellent practice for their post-secondary education.
Andy B.
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