Deans List Interview

[Jon Stratis]

That's an interesting view of it, Todd. Personally, when I look at the award, I've focused more on this passage:

The students who earn FIRST Dean’s List Award status as either a Nominee, Finalist or Winner, will not only be great examples of student leaders who have led their teams and communities to increased awareness for FIRST and its mission all the while achieving personal technical expertise and accomplishment, but it is the intention of FIRST that they will continue on, post-award, as great leaders of FIRST ever growing student alumni and as advocates of FIRST.

This seems to indicate to me that they're looking for well-balanced students who excel at everything, and some sort of indication that they will continue to give back to FIRST long after they've graduated.

Towards that end, when I write nominations (like the ones for my team's finalists for the past two years), I treat the 7 criteria like boxes that need to be checked off in each nomination. Once I know what I'll say that goes against each of those criteria, I then try to weave that into a coherent story that sums up everything there is to know about the student. Unfortunately, this means a lot gets left out (stupid character limit!), but if done right it can help show a pattern of behavior for a student that allows you to easily project their future involvement with the program. In the end, the goal is to write an essay that makes you say "wow" when you read it!

It's no joke when I tell you that the two Dean's List nominations I've wrote each took 4+ months of effort, feedback from dozens of individuals, and probably a hundred drafts each before I was happy enough to submit them. These are our best and brightest, and they deserve a great effort from us to help them get an award they truly deserve.

As for the interview... I think it's less about quantity than it is quality. The judges don't need to know every last thing you've done for the team and for FIRST - that's in the essay. They do, however, need to get to know you. What makes you special? What's unique about you? What can you do to leave the judges with a lasting impression after you leave the interview room? Your goal shouldn't be to regurgitate the essay in the interview - it should be to inspire the judges to want to go back and read the essay again because they "just know" you're something special.

[sergioCorral842]

I was interviewed in the Arizona Regional and I will share what I was asked in the interview:

1. If your essay included helping the community, get ready to explain how you did so in detail. Mine included mentoring FLL teams and participating in numerous events.

2. Something asked to me was already posted in this thread. "Tell us about yourself." I had to explain to the judges what I did on the team and what I have done in the past years on the team.

3. Finally, know your essay. When I entered the room, they had my essay right in front of them with notes written on it. Most of the questions asked to me revolved around my essay with the occasional "How do you spread FIRST?" kind of question.

[ToddF]

Originally Posted by sergioCorral842

I was interviewed in the Arizona Regional and I will share what I was asked in the interview:
...
3. Finally, know your essay. When I entered the room, they had my essay right in front of them with notes written on it. Most of the questions asked to me revolved around my essay with the occasional "How do you spread FIRST?" kind of question.

Just so you know, this situation is exactly how it will be when you go for a real job interview. Managers will sift through a stack of resumes, discarding the ones that obviously don't fit the bill. They will usually do phone interviews with maybe half a dozen candidates to narrow the choices down to 2 or 3. Then they will pay your travel expenses to come to a face to face interview. This usually takes about 1/2 a day. Usually you will be interviewed by a couple people in the morning, then go out to lunch with some potential coworkers, then talk to some more after lunch. There will usually be a facility tour in there somewhere.

All of these people will have seen your resume, and will be asking you questions about it. Often, how you present yourself is more important than the actual answers you give to the questions. Also very important are the questions you ask about the company during the tour, and during your interviews. You don't just want to give answers, you want to engage the interviewer in a conversation.

Same thing applies to your Dean's List interview. When the judges are asking you questions, they are trying to get to know you and see if who you are in person matches up with how your mentors have presented you on paper. Approach the interview as an opportunity to make a couple new friends. Be respectful, but friendly, like you would be to members of the general public asking you the same sorts of questions at a Demo. Think of the interview as a demo, except instead of talking about FIRST, you are talking about yourself. But since you are a dedicated FIRST'er (otherwise you wouldn't be nominated by your mentors) you'll end up talking about FIRST anyway.

[safiq10]

Originally Posted by ToddF

The requirement for a Dean's List interview makes more sense once you realize that this has evolved into a marketing and PR award. When working on our essays this year, we started by looking at the stated criteria for the award:
• demonstrated leadership and commitment to the ideals of FIRST;
• interest in and passion for a long term commitment to FIRST and its ideals;
• overall individual contribution to their team;
• technical expertise and passion;
• entrepreneurship and creativity;
• ability to motivate and lead fellow team members; and
• effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in their school and community

We rearranged these how we suspected FIRST felt they were important:
• effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in their school and community
• demonstrated leadership and commitment to the ideals of FIRST;
• interest in and passion for a long term commitment to FIRST and its ideals;
• entrepreneurship and creativity;
• ability to motivate and lead fellow team members
• overall individual contribution to their team;
• technical expertise and passion;

Essentially, they are looking for one person Chairman’s Award teams. They aren’t really interested in students who are good for their team, they are interested in students who are aggressive ambassadors for FIRST. In this context, an interview makes perfect sense. It enables the judges to see whether the candidate really is a good representative for FIRST, or if they just look good on paper. If a student looks great in the essay, but can barely stumble through an interview with a couple judges in a closed room, that's evidence that they really haven't been all that great a representative, and the mentors are just talking them up. If a student has really been out there, doing demos, and talking with the public about the FIRST message, they learn PR skills that make a simple interview with a couple judges a piece of cake.

One of our nominees was a repeat from last year. Our essay last year emphasized their contribution to our team. This was not what the judges were looking for. Once we realized that this award was a marketing award, we were able to write our 2014 essays accordingly and properly prepare our nominees. As a result, this same student will be going to St. Louis as a Dean's List finalist, even if the rest of us don't earn our way there.

So knowing your essay down to last comma is important, also it wouldn't be a bad idea to hearse yourself over your essay and try to cover and come up with question yourself. I will be competing in OKC this week and will try to post some of the question I received.

[Red2486]

I too was interviewed this weekend at the Arizona Regional. They asked me four or five questions and none were directly about anything from my essay. They asked if I planned on continuing with FIRST and to what extent, what my role was on the team, and what my favorite part of being on my team was. They also asked what I was planning on doing after graduation. Those are all the questions I remember. I am not sure why the questions were so generic; perhaps because I was the first interview, but I'm not really sure.

I wore the dress and blazer I wear for our Chairman's presentation since we had it about an hour after my Dean's List Interview.

They also asked me if I had anything to add. I took this opportunity to explain how honored I am to have been nominated as my team and to thank them for their time.

It really seemed very short. But the judges are very friendly, and remember that they are there because they are excited to talk to you. Just have fun and be yourself. They really just want to talk to you and get to know you

[Bryce2471]

I was one of the deans list students going on to PNW championships from the Wilsonville district. I'm not really sure if my interview went well, but because I was a "winner" (or whatever you call it), I think I'll share my experience.

I was in the pits talking to a parent from another team about a swerve drive from the robot, when someone came to get me for the interview. I started to pack the drive that was in my hand away, but I stopped part way through and decided to ask if I could bring it with me. He said "I don't see why not." So I fallowed him to the hall outside the interview room. We talked for a couple minutes, until exactly 11:45.

When I entered the interview room, there were two judges sitting at a desk. They asked me to sit down in the open chair across the table from them. I sat down and introduced myself. One of the judges was new to me, but I recognized the other as one of the robot judges from the Oregon city district event two weeks earlier. The second judge (the one I had never met) said that he was glad I brought a swerve drive with me because he had heard about it but never seen one.

They started a timer that was sitting in the desk. I'm not sure how long it was set for (it felt like about 6.5 seconds ), but right then the first judge (the one I met in Oregon city) asked me how the swerve drive project came to be. I talked about that for a while. I had just gotten to the part where we used a prototype version for an off-season event hosted by team 1540 the flaming chickens, when the second judge said that we shouldn't talk about the same thing for the whole time. the first judge then asked me about how the designs affected the robot of the local team 2517. I get the feeling that I had already told her the answer at Oregon City. Then again, it could also have been in the essay that was submitted by my mentors, because I've never read it. Right about then, the timer went off, and they said that we didn't have much time left.

I quickly talked about the designs of 2517, and how we influenced them. Part way through that, the first judge asked how I promoted first and spread its message in my community. I had talked about most of the important points there, when someone opened the door to say that we were out of time. As I began to stand up. The second judge asked me how the competition was going. I told him that it wasn't going as well as I hoped. There were a lot of small tuning and maintenance issues that were costing us matches. But I said that I was proud of my robot and that I was beginning to fall in love with it. As I was opening the door to leave I said that When its not doing well, I give it a kiss. They both smiled and laughed. They told me to have a nice day, and almost by accident, I said "See you later." Like they were a part of the team.

I was definitely a great experience, and I look forward to submitting at PNW district champs!

Sorry for the giant post. I hope that someone finds it useful. If you actually got through the whole thing, thanks for reading

[safiq10]

Me and my friend had our deans list interview at Oklahoma City. When we both walked in the judges had questions ready and we didnt have the dreaded "Tell me about yourself" question. Some of the questions they asked us included

• Tell us about the effects of FIRST in your life?
• What do you do on the team?
• What does FIRST mean to you?
• How do you motivate your team?
• Why do you want to win deans list award?
• How long have you been in FIRST?

I recommend you revierw these questions and get your coach to make more questions. Also the deans list interview is like a job interview so ask your coach to run a practice match with you. I think they allowed mentors inside judging room but like chairmans you cant say anything. Now I'm not sure about this but that is what I think.

[Jade Z]

Does anyone know if there are interviews before or after matches start and end for the day?

How easy was it for any of you to swap times with another team on short notice?

[safiq10]

Originally Posted by Jade Z

Does anyone know if there are interviews before or after matches start and end for the day?

How easy was it for any of you to swap times with another team on short notice?

Not sure about switching matches but in OKC we had the interviews on thursday and you had the option of doing in the inbetween matches or before. Coming from texas that day I choose the afternoon times. But it was only the practice matches. I'd recommend you to talk with the person who does the sign up times and tell them your problem and ask what you should do if you can't make the interview because of a match.

Good luck! if you need anything else please ask and I'll try to do my best to provide information on this topic.