What sets apart a Dean's List Winner ?

[ouellet348]

I was just wondering about the Dean's List Regional Finalist Award, as well as the actual winners of the Dean's List at Nationals. What traits seem to set them apart from the other nominees ? What activities, actions, or goals set them apart from other people in FIRST ? What is the recipe so to speak to make a Dean's List Finalist ?

As my mostly under-classman team heads to their first FIRST regional I want to be able to tell them traits and activities to emulate from those who truly get it. Thanks and see you all at New Orleans and Boston !

[penguinfrk]

Our team captain won the Dean's List award with Sean Messenger from 2046 Bear Metal at the Seattle Olympic Regional today.

I don't know if this is necessarily the winning recipe, but here's how I'd describe him:

-Hilariously entertaining (jokes at his own expense )
-Knowledgeable
-Takes blame for mistakes
-Outgoing
-Dedicated
-Great communication skills
-Fun
-Father figure: willing to sit down with members and talk to them about personal troubles (parent divorce, relationships)

All of which constitute an inspirational leader. I'm glad he won it; it is the greatest thing we could've done for him before he graduated. I've known him for 5 years and I would not be involved with FIRST without him. I strive to be like him.

[JaneYoung]

I don't think you can nail down the traits, characteristics, and qualities of a Dean's List Finalist. You can try, certainly, but you will never be able to pigeonhole them. It's like trying to count the grains of sand or the stars in the sky.

Another aspect of this is that, as the Dean's List Award becomes more ingrained in the FRC awards program, more and more mentors will take the lead in the submissions. There are aspects of a student and a student's life/work/effort that a mentor values and can see that the team or peers may not be privy to or even understand. Students and mentors are partners but they are not peers and never will be.

There isn't a tried and true recipe for becoming a Dean's List Finalist. There isn't a cookie cutter shaped to cut out a Finalist. It's more of a a wonderful homemade soup that contains secret ingredients, a good broth as an excellent foundation, fresh vegetables, lots of spices, and, perhaps, a bit of a magic touch.

In the Woodie Flowers Finalists Award and the Woodie Flowers Award, there are likely common ingredients such as knowledge, quality, excellence, ability to communicate well, impact, and goodness knows what else. (They have their own wonderful soup mixtures.) In the Dean's List, students can't always be compared to the mentors because they grow and develop so much during their time in FRC. They may not be the strongest of communicators or, they may develop that skill. They may not know beans (a great soup ingredient) about the robot but their impact on the team is extraordinary or, they may have an amazing touch with the robot but they are not interested in community outreach or aware of the value of impact. They may have a personal challenge that they fight to overcome and do so with a Herculean yet humble effort.

Our robotics community loves to analyze data and constantly tries to nail down exactly what it takes to achieve/succeed - WIN. Sometimes, 'WIN' is filled with grace, beauty, determination, and quality beyond measure. I think the Dean's List candidates and Finalists are probably made of this type of WIN.

Good luck with this thread. I will be interested to read the posts in it.

Jane

[penguinfrk]

After chewing over it for a day or two, I've found a better way to organize my thoughts on this subject.

The way I see it--

A FIRST team is like a dandelion. It starts out as a seed, and then it grows. With unspeakable effort from the sun, the rain, the soil--the students, the parents, the mentors--it grows healthy and strong. It grows into a beautiful, delicate sphere, the pinnacle of science and technology, absolutely awe-inspiring.

And then, it takes a single individual to blow apart every seed apart. The dandelion gives its seeds selflessly away. These seeds twirl and whirl, and where they land, new inspirations grow new dandelions.

A Dean's List Winner or a Woodie Flower's Honoree is exactly that inspiring, charismatic, initiative-taking individual that blows the seeds of inspiration across the community they are in.

We are all part of a field of dandelions that owe its existence to these individuals. I feel honored to have worked so closely with one such individual.

[ratdude747]

I would expand this out to anybody nominated by thier team for the award. that by itself gets you the "semifinalist award" (I have the bronze pin to prove it). this goes along with honestly earned woodie flower semifinalists; that in itself is an honor.

the things that set apart the people on the list, imho, are:

- dedicated and commited. They show up when they can. They never or at least rarley make excuses.
- professional. they mean buisness. they take all meaningful things seriously.
- skilled. they do what they do and do it well. if it needs done, they can be trused to deliver.
- outgoingness. they are not afraid to go out of thier comfort zone (with limits) and try new things.
- mentor-like. they mentor younger members. they allow younger members to lean and gian knowedge and skills, rather than treating younger members as "stupid" and leaving them behind.
- enthusiastic- they love what they do and keep up morale.
- leadership skills. they posses leadership skills, regardless of any official leaderhip role or lack therof. if they were needed to lead, they could take the bull by the horns and keep the ship afloat and on couse.

I was a semifinalist on my former team last year. based on the essay written about me and what the mentors told me, I got the award because of:

-despite knowing that I would not be on the team next year (moving), I was very committed and almost never missed a meeting. Most team leaders ont he otherhand often missed meeting due to exuses ranging from "I had a date" to missing a critical presentation due to rescheduled Lady Gaga concert.

-I was the go-to guy on lathe work. sure, I was very skilled at electronics, but so was the Electronics captain. On the lathe, I could work magic and take a sketch on paper and make it in a timely fashion. I also taught my skills to younger members. I even taught the mentors some skills.

- I was very professional and knew what i was talking about. if one had a question, I had an answer or at least knew where to find it.

- I was never afraid to work extra hard and extra long. I often missed out on parts of lunch on satrday since I would often finish my job before I ate (which I still do, i don't eat until either i hit a good stopping point or my work is done). If i did something, i did it right each time, every time.

I was not a leader of anything officially that year. I wanted to make sure members that would exist next year had a chance to lead.

Congrats to all past and current nominees and winners of dean's list; you are the standard other members should try to emulate and model off of.