Inclusion in FIRST

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

As a mentor, the hardest part of the job is to assign tasks appropriately. You want to reward those who work hard and have talent, but at the same time you don't want to be pushing aside others. You want to give the responsibility to the more experienced members of the team (juniors and seniors), but sometimes you'll have a younger member who is just better at it, or an older member who just isn't capable of being a leader. It can be extremely difficult to balance all of the competing demands and keep everyone happy. You have to put an amazing amount of effort into keeping things balanced and respectful to everyone, or you end up with someone feeling left out or neglected.

I have always found that I have a hard time as a mentor properly engaging more than a small handful of students at a time. I primarily teach students how to use the power tools, heavy machines, and general fabrication skills. There is a reason most things in fields like that are done via apprenticeship. Every year I do everything I can to let everyone have a shot at touching the machines and make sure all the girls have a chance to step up and try it out. But simply put there is a VASTLY insufficient ratio between my time, students, and total available machine time. So I use the first go around of training to find the kids that catch on quickly and then train them until they can start learning on their own. Then I have those well trained students as my go-to problem solvers, but there is always room for an extra set of hands and eyes. So every time I have someone working on something I will try to find someone not busy and have them go help and at the same time that student gets a chance to be taught too! This way the skills I am passing on are in turn passed on from student to student. Additionally that first student gets the chance to be a teacher as well, reinforcing their skills further through teaching and building their communication skills.