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

[S.P.A.M.er]

How did you hear about FIRST? I heard about FIRST 10 years ago through my elementary school gifted program. I was in third grade at the time and our 4/5th grade gifted teacher was seeing if there was any interest in starting an FLL team that would participate at the FRC Team 180 S.P.A.M. FLL Qualifying tournament. The teacher's husband was ironically both the engineering teacher at my future HS as well as a Teacher-Mentor for S.P.A.M.
What made you decide to join? I joined FLL because my mom was an engineer with Florida Power and Light (FPL) as well as the entire gifted class I was in (same 12 kids I had been with since Kindergarten) had all decided to join the team. We did everything together and the team survived until we hit 6th grade when we were no longer able to be on the Elementary school team due to district policy. From 6-8th grade I would go with my friend Frannie Pawlak (the amazing artist on S.P.A.M.) to the FRC tournaments and always knew I wanted to join. I joined in summer 2011 after making the mistake of playing a varsity sport I love on a team who wanted nothing to do with me. My time on FRC 180 has been the best times of my life, as I've been able to become a better speaker and more confident in what I do. I feel that FIRST provided me with the skills I needed to become a good Army Engineer before even going to AIT, as well as helping to secure me a full scholarship to college. FIRST and SPAM are going to be a part of my life forever, I'll be mentoring/starting teams across the globe wherever my career may take me.