Are all girl FIRST team counterproductive to the philosophy of FIRST?

[Molten]

Originally Posted by eagle33199

The thing your missing here Jason is that, in her situation, everyone was new. Taking the general ed/freshman classes, everyone is new to the school and the environment. Given that, why should she be excluded any more than others in her class?

I can tell you from my experiences in college... even in my first semester physics lab, my lab partners never excluded me or ignored me. But, we were all guys (seriously, have you tried to find a girl in an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department?). We were all new to the school, no one knew anyone else... it was a perfect environment to be open to others ideas without the baggage of past experiences and expectations.

I can tell you, without a doubt, Rachael is one of the Robettes all stars. She was the first person on the team who really "got it", and by far the most dedicated. She has personally inspired and drawn in quite a bit of the team, and she's one we still talk about when we're trying to inspire the girls. Anyone in her labs would really have to be foolish not to listen to her.

Finally, a closing thought from working with an all-girls team for 5 years. Our drive team is most often ignored by other drive teams. Not because we don't have something valuable to say, or because our students are timid or shy, or because we've done poorly in the past (highest seeded rookie team, finalist the next 3 years, and winning at North Star this year). Can you explain why that is if it's not gender based?

Honestly, my college must be different because everyone started out rather skeptical of one another. Perhaps the culture difference. Also, I know several girls in mechanical engineering and one in electrical that I share classes with this semester. I can't speak as to the computer sciences as I've not taken any of those classes myself. Note: I'm not saying they aren't vastly outnumbered.(I'd estimate them being outnumbered 20 to 1 but thats really more a guess then anything else as it varies alot between classes and semesters)

As far as the reason your team is ignored: I thought back to when I was a student on 1766 and alot of teams are so focused on their own team that they tend to ignore whats going on around them. I'd estimate that this makes up some fraction of the reason people aren't paying attention to your team. I would not estimate it to be the only reason. Just part of it. Thats the thing, there are too many variables to something like this. Can you really tell me that the only reason people are ignoring you is due to your team gender? I have no doubt that it isn't the reason for some teams. I just suggest we don't paint with such a big brush. Some of those teams ignore you for other reasons and don't deserve to be assumed to be sexist. Inconsiderate, yes but please don't assume intentions unless the person tells you or there has been a strong trend with that individual person.