Engaging women in FIRST

[Jon Stratis]

With our team, recruitment primarily happens through our summer program. It's a two week program with 8 meetings, where new and old students get to come to the build space, learn about what we do, and build something they can take home (usually a kit of some sort). We take the time to draw up precise instructions that include investigation stuff to help them understand what they're doing, and focus a lot on helping them through it so they don't struggle too much. Once they have that experience, they're hooked and want to come back for more.

It's a nice, low pressure way to get them involved without asking them to sign up for a major commitment like the build season right off the bat.