Why even bother submitting a Chairman's Award if we're not gonna win?

[jacobythegreat]

Some people may forget the experience that a team gets from submitting for Chairman's. FIRST is an organization that provides an education in STEM. What many forget is the marketing and business part of it. I myself look forward to the future with business at the forefront of expertise. This past weekend at Troy, two other students and I from Team 4130 presented our final Chairman's submission which included dressing formally (complete suits ,) speaking knowledgeably of our team without the use of our judges binder or documentation, and the referral of poster boards that showcased different figures and statistics for the judges to see our team's growth and development in only one year. Working on spreading out our team, managing our team's finances (thanks to a business plan that won Entrepreneurship,) and also working on presentations such as this and for corporate businesses has been providing me with a lot of experience that is helping me to learn and prepare for the future. I've received a lot of work in time management and obviously how to form a presentation. Quite frankly, I'm proud of how our team did business wise at Troy. We're only a second year team and a team of that age winning Entrepreneurship is unheard of. That's a big reason why I think more teams should try for the award. Yes, your not going to win it in your first year of presenting (our business mentor even said if we were to win the award, it wouldn't "sit well" with every single other person that was at the competition,) but it provides your team with a greater chance to win other awards and it does take time to win Chairman's. My hope is to win the Chairman's award within the next two years before I graduate (I am a sophomore,) and Entrepreneurship was a big step forward. 4130 has started out doing a lot of work in business at a young age and we plan on developing along with other aspects of the team like mechanical and programming. This success is what illustrates to students the product of hard work and determination as well as gracious professionalism and working to create a greater future and world. That is the main reason why there is a Chairman's award, to encourage development and success of the human species.