How did you hear about FIRST and WHY did you get involved?

[David8696]

Originally Posted by VIAIR_Ryan

Hey FRC participants,

I doubt many people will see this post since the competition is over so there's no reason to be on here...

Dude. Why do you think I'm here? The competition is over, I have no other FIRST-related activities to pursue–WHAT ELSE AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE BUT BROWSE CHIEF DELPHI UNTIL JANUARY????

[Tamster]

Hello Ryan,

I found out about FIRST in middle school from my friend and her older sister, who was on a robotics team. My friend had already gotten me into robotics - she had me at "build cool robots" - so I decided to look into it; after asking her sister about it, I decided that I wanted to be involved with FIRST robotics.

When I went to high school, I knew I had to join the team. I was attracted by the team's energy and how they all seemed to be one big family, and their cool-looking robot was the icing on the cake. Also, the competition itself drew me in - nothing captivated me more than being surrounded by different robots. The more I went to robotics, the more I was hooked. I just loved building and designing robots, and it was a great learning experience for me. I find that, by joining FRC, I have boosted my self-confidence, gained hands-on experience, and had a lot of fun. At this point, FRC is a way of life for me, and I don't regret joining robotics for one moment.

I hope this helps

[belle94]

In Grade 8, I was new at my school and there was a girl in my homeroom that I wanted to be friends with. She was doing FLL, so I decided to do it too. When I got to high school, I joined our FRC team because it seemed like the natural next step. It wasn't that I was super passionate about it (yet); it just never occurred to me to stop doing robotics. I got hooked that first year and the rest is history (and that girl is still one of my best friends).

I agree with the others about the video: it's a little too specific if you're trying to recruit people. You could bring in some testimonials from people on FLL and FTC teams and maybe even some alums, to see what impact FIRST has had on them.

[scca229]

My involvement in FIRST started with my "little brother" (he is 21 years younger than me and I've been looking up at him for a few years now) calling me every few days for a few weeks back in January 2011 for "network issues" related to getting a laptop to talk to a "micro controller" of some sort along with other "networking problems". I had absolutely no idea what it was he was trying to do but I seemed to have provided the right answers to get them connected and talking to each other.

A few months later he called me to tell me that he was coming down from Kingman, AZ to Phoenix for a competition and that I really needed to go check it out if I could make it. I still didn't know what the heck he was talking about, but what hay, since it was at a local high school about 5 minutes off of my route to/from work, I swung by. Holy crap I was hooked as soon as I walked in the gym and saw what was going on (would have been after lunch on Friday). Once I found his team (60 - The Bionic Bulldogs from Kingman, AZ), I sat him down and made him explain exactly what it was that I was watching (Logomotion was the game that year). The next year I was officially booked on as a long-distance mentor helping out with anything I could do from 250 miles away.

I was Volun-told as an FTAA to help out with the 2013 Arizona Regional due to the field network problems that had cropped up earlier in the season (I'm a Network Engineer). I had an absolute blast working with the FTA, Mark McLeod, and he taught me a huge amount of what an FTA does along with the FMS itself.

I was again Volun-told as an FTAA at the 2013 Las Vegas Regional 2 weeks later due to field electronics not behaving on Thursday morning when teams were just about to be let into the building. Since I had just worked with the field in Phoenix, I was able to step in and connect everything together while the FTA dealt with other issues of field setup that couldn't be resolved the night before. I again learned an amazing amount of stuff from the event FTA along with other FTAs that were present.

I knew then that I needed to figure out how to become an FTA...and so did my wife as she says that even though I was coming home totally exhausted from these events, I hadn't looked happier in a LONG time. This year I was invited into the program, but not selected for an event, so didn't go to the training...fingers crossed for next year though with some Regionals being added, including in Arizona. Instead I did Robot Inspection at the 2014 Arizona Regional which I found very helpful in understanding the robots more from more than just my own mentored team as well as helped at the field when not needed for inspections and to keep an eye on robots needing to be looked at again. I was also the FTAA at the 2014 Las Vegas Regional which reaffirmed my desire to go further in the program (I'm sure there is plenty of video of me running all around that field trying to figure out why a bot went link-dead).

I so wish that this program was around when I was in high school...or at least in Southern California at the time. My high school would have been all over it as we were always looking for ways to use the technology grant money given by the local university.

Nate

[Chief Hedgehog]

Hey Ryan,

Welcome to CD! I doubt that you will find another online community as dedicated to it's 'pasttime' than those of us from the FRC community.

It is awesome to see one of our supporters/suppliers actively engaged in this sport.

For my story - here it is:
It was a long, winding road for me to become apart of FRC. As a college student at UW Stout and St Cloud State University in the late '90's and early '00's I heard some rumblings about a robotics program. At that time I was young, had other interests, and FRC was not a part of the WI/MN structure. The only program that was anything near FRC in these parts was the HMV Challenge at UW Stout and BRI. It was entertaining - but not my cup of tea at the moment.

Fast forward 12+ years - I have been teaching at my alma mater for some time. I have been a coach in our very successful Wrestling Program and I have helped to build our Soccer program from the ground up at Becker.

Because of my Coaching and Educational background, my AP asked me if I would be interested in a robotics program. No doubt this is what my school was missing. My department does a great job providing the local industries and Tech colleges with many students interested in the skills - maybe we should engage the other students. So I signed on.

He (my AP) promised me that it was only a 6 week job - and I could continue coaching Soccer and Wrestling - no problem.

So we scheduled a van a took 8 students to the MPLS regionals in 2012 (RR). We were hooked. The whole way back to Becker was talk of what we could do. How we build a robot. The intricacies of RISK (Australia)...

6 weeks - HAH! The first year it became a 6 month program - so I left my duties as a Wrestling coach. 2 years in and I am contemplating leaving my post as the Varsity Soccer coach. A program that I built from nothing. This is what FRC means to me. I have seen such great end results from the kids of my robotics team - things that I never saw from my years as a 'traditional' coach - I am about to leave a program that I love and built to focus on a new venture in FRC.

Now we are a solid program with 2 years under our belt. This season we have been piloting our future drive trains. We had a great rookie season that was followed up by a sub-par sophomore season (finishing in the quarterfinals at North Star and an invitation to the MSHSL Tournament); not a slump by most teams' standards - but it has been for us.

We have used your VIAIR pump and have been successful with it. We hope that VIAIR continues it's support of FRC in the future!

This is my story of what FRC has done for me.