Disappointment with Dean's List Criteria

[Nuwanda]

Very recently, I was informed of my team's nominees for the FRC Dean's List award. As a junior on the team who has been actively involved for three years, I was understandably disheartened when I found myself to not be nominated. I'm the lead of our awards team, have been writing and submitting Chairman's essays since I was a freshmen, and invest a lot of time in our presentation and video. I am also a student leader for scouting, and have been for the past two years. Additionally, I lead our documentation team in making an engineering notebook, which has required an amazing amount of dedication by my team and myself in particular. I also help organize our community outreach and work on our social media. I volunteer at FTC and FRC events, and help coach our FTC team. I consider myself a well rounded and passionate member of the FIRST community. I plan to continue being involved with FIRST after I graduate because of the value of this program.
My mentors informed me that I was at the top of their list for Dean's List students, and that they had been excited to write about all of the ways I lead my team. However, they were upset to find out that I was not eligible for nomination. This is due simply to the fact that I am not pursuing a career in engineering or another STEM field. While it was encouraging to know that my team appreciates the hard work that I put in, it was discouraging to know that I am going to be overlooked.
I think this is a grave mistake on FIRST's part. They are always exclaiming that FIRST is about more than robots, and that the Chairman's Award is the most prestigious honor that a team can receive. Yet, there are students like myself who are passed by when it comes to recognition for outstanding leadership in things that are not directly related to the robot. I cannot be the first student to have missed out on the amazing opportunity to represent their team as a Dean's List Nominee.
I am one of the most dedicated members of my team. I put in countless hours to make my team stronger by focusing on the areas where we’re lacking, taking the initiative in many different ways. The Dean’s List award is meant to recognize student leadership, and my teammates and mentors agree that I am deserving of this recognition. I am honestly disappointed with FIRST. Even though a team is not just a robot, I feel this is sending the message that the robot is the most important part, which directly contradicts the values that FIRST promotes. Inspiring science and technology may be FIRST’s mission, but the program teaches a number of other skills that are just as valuable. The criteria for this award are:
-Demonstrated leadership and commitment to the ideals of FIRST
-Effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in the school and community
-Interest in and passion for a long-term commitment to FIRST
-Overall individual contribution to their team
-Technical expertise and passion
-Entrepreneurship and creativity
-Ability to motivate and lead fellow team members
I strongly believe that someone who isn’t going into STEM is fully capable of meeting all of these criteria and placing that stipulation is unfair to those students who are not interested in pursuing a STEM career. I love this program and know how much of an impact it has on the future of innovation, but this is an issue that I’ve been struggling with, and one that I felt should be brought to the attention of more people.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Nuwanda

My mentors informed me that I was at the top of their list for Dean's List students, and that they had been excited to write about all of the ways I lead my team. However, they were upset to find out that I was not eligible for nomination. This is due simply to the fact that I am not pursuing a career in engineering or another STEM field.

Why were you not eligible? Requiring nominees to be pursuing a career in STEM has not been a criteria in the past and I don't believe it is now either. Did you find this eligibility requirement in any official documentation?

[Nuwanda]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Why were you not eligible? Requiring nominees to be pursuing a career in STEM has not been a criteria in the past and I don't believe it is now either. Did you find this eligibility requirement in any official documentation?

I spoke with my mentor concerning it, and she explained this was the only reason why they didn't nominate me.

[SpaceBiz]

To the best of my knowledge, you are not required to be perusing a career in stem in order to be a nominee. The award has little to nothing to do with what you plan to do in the future. Someone please check me on this.

[Nuwanda]

Originally Posted by SpaceBiz

To the best of my knowledge, you are not required to be perusing a career in stem in order to be a nominee. The award has little to nothing to do with what you plan to do in the future. Someone please check me on this.

Looks like I wasted my time writing that lovely essay (please note the sarcasm). It seems like the problem may be within my team, which is something I was actually dreading. Thanks for your input.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Nuwanda

Looks like I wasted my time writing that lovely essay (please note the sarcasm). It seems like the problem may be within my team, which is something I was actually dreading. Thanks for your input.

Wait hold up. The students write their own essays on your team?

Figured I would mention I was nominated for The Deans list and have no interest in pursing a STEM career.

[hardcopi]

My daughter went to World's last year for Deans List and has no interest in Stem. She is going to be a lawyer. On the other hand, while she is certainly a leader in first (President of the Team, Drive Team Captain, Student Council President, etc) I will say Dean's list itself doesn't offer much of anything for any non-stem careers. No real scholarship opportunities for non-stem careers, etc.

[Nuwanda]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Wait hold up. The students write their own essays on your team?

Figured I would mention I was nominated for The Deans list and have no interest in pursing a STEM career.

Definitely not! I meant my long post about the issues that I had with FIRST's criteria that don't even exist.

[Bryan Herbst]

A full description of the selection criteria is available in Section 6 of the Admin Manual.

There are no requirements regarding the nominee's plans for future education. In fact, it doesn't even explicitly require that the nominee be planning to attend college*.

It is very unfortunate that your mentors either mistakenly thought this was a requirement. It is also possible that your team made the decision to make it a team requirement for the nomination, as teams are free to nominate any student in either 10th or 11th grade base on whatever requirements the team sees fit.

The best thing you can do at this point is discuss the issue with your mentors so that they are aware of the proper criteria in future years.

* Though the requirements do use "years away from entering college or university" as a substitute for "10th or 11th grade" where those terms are not appropriate, I don't think this is an explicit requirement that the nominee plan to attend college (or university).

[Nuwanda]

Originally Posted by Tanis

A full description of the selection criteria is available in Section 6 of the Admin Manual.

There are no requirements regarding the nominee's plans for future education. In fact, it doesn't even explicitly require that the nominee be planning to attend college*.

It is very unfortunate that your mentors either mistakenly thought this was a requirement. It is also possible that your team made the decision to make it a team requirement for the nomination, as teams are free to nominate any student in either 10th or 11th grade base on whatever requirements the team sees fit.

The best thing you can do at this point is discuss the issue with your mentors so that they are aware of the proper criteria in future years.

* Though the requirements do use "years away from entering college or university" as a substitute for "10th or 11th grade" where those terms are not appropriate, I don't think this is an explicit requirement that the nominee plan to attend college (or university).

I've read through the Admin manual in detail (as awards lead, it's my job). However, according to my mentors, it was in the actual submission form, which I have no access to as a student. I will definitely talk to them though, thank you for the advice. It's disappointing that it was a simple misunderstanding of the criteria.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Nuwanda

However, according to my mentors, it was in the actual submission form, which I have no access to as a student.

I just double checked the submission form in TIMS. There is no mention of any criteria requiring nominees to be planning on an education or career in STEM.

[D_Price]

In agreeing with Karthiks, As we have also nominated students knowing full well they had no interest in pursuing a career in STEM, It seems to be an issue within your team and mentor group or clarification error on a mentor's part. Refer them to the official admin manual because unfortunately they have not read it themselves.

Originally Posted by Karthik

I just double checked the submission form in TIMS. There is no mention of any criteria requiring nominees to be planning on an education or career in STEM.

[Nuwanda]

Thank you all for taking the time to look into this for me. I'm glad that this isn't an issue with FIRST, that was what was bothering me the most. Whether it was simple misinformation on my mentor's part or the fact that I wasn't good enough to be nominated and they lied to spare my feelings, it doesn't matter. It's disappointing, of course, but it was never about the award for me. It won't change the fact that I am a dedicated participant on my team and an active member of the FIRST community. Our first competition is in less than two weeks, I've got bigger things to worry about.