Attn: Present & Future College Students, Think carefully before you mentor

[Alex2614]

Originally Posted by Joe Matt

Did a quick post on selling shirts, so I wanted to pop my head in here and tell all the new freshman to NOT do FIRST freshman year of college. Grow, expand, learn, then come back when you can offer something new.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't mentor FIRST. Granted, my situation was different, as I was on the team in the rookie year, and have worked through high school to expand FIRST in the area, and I was going to college at the sponsoring university of the team (I grew up in the college town). It helped keep some consistency and stability in my ever-changing life in college.

I treated it like any other organization. I stayed involved in scouting (even joined a group for scouting at the college level), I joined the marching band at WVU, and I stayed involved in FIRST. It's just like joining any other organization at the university.

However, I know a lot of FIRST mentors that have said the same. Some folks do really well mentoring FIRST in the freshman year. Some don't. It depends on the situation, and the person. But I know personally and for many of my friends that are college mentors, we know that we would have been lost without FIRST, and we wouldn't really be able to stay away anyway.

... You can grow, learn, and expand while also being involved in FIRST.