How far do you Travel to Mentor?

[GeeTwo]

2 miles home to shop. There's a hardware store on the way, on the right side of the road. I think I put in more mileage going to and from Home Depot and Lowes than from the house to and from the workshop. The rookie teams we mentor are about 45 minutes away; so far, most of the travel has been them coming to us. Fountainbleu FLL tournament is about 30 minutes away, and the state FLL tournament is about 45 minutes away; the team provides the core of the referee, traffic control, and field reset for both. Bayou Regional is about an hour away from anywhere in Slidell. St Louis last year was about the only 100+ mile trip I've taken so far to mentor or volunteer.

Edit: Perry regularly walked home from school last year in decent weather, even though there was a bus.

[Peyton Yeung]

2.3 miles from my apartment to our shop at the high school. 461 is lucky to be almost right next door to Purdue university so many of our mentors are within walking distance from the school.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by MissDaisyGirl

You're not crazy! We have 4 mentors who travel 2+ hours each weekend. Keep up the good work.

How long was Jared's commute when he was at RIT?

[SenorZ]

Let me apologize in advance...
I drive only 4mi to the school where I teach and mentor. On a good day (no red lights) its 10 min.

[Michael Corsetto]

1/2 mile bike ride from my house!

We meet 4 days a week, so the days off are nice too!

-Mike

[nighterfighter]

About 50 miles one way, usually takes me an hour to get to the school. Luckily for me, our district event at Kennesaw will take me 5 minutes of walking to get to.


Perhaps this question could be changed to a poll?

[Peyton Yeung]

I find it interesting how far some people go to mentor a team. Anybody want to share why they drive upwards of a few hours each trip to mentor their team? Is there not a team closer? I've always been a bit spoiled with team distribution (4 nearby teams when in high school and 4 nearby teams while in college).

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

I find it interesting how far some people go to mentor a team. Anybody want to share why they drive upwards of a few hours each trip to mentor their team? Is there not a team closer? I've always been a bit spoiled with team distribution (4 nearby teams when in high school and 4 nearby teams while in college).

For me, it's because 1923 is my home. I've worked with other teams & learned a lot, but nothing beats my MidKnight family.

I drive 3.5 hours (not counting traffic) every Friday night, and back on Sundays - from where my job is in MD, to my mom's house & my team in NJ. Not just during build season - I think I've had maybe two weeks off since Kickoff 2015?
[Edit: Three, since the Northeast's Snowmageddon this year shut down my travel plans.]

When I was doing my undergrad at Clarkson the drive was 7 hours but I didn't go back every weekend, since I was splitting time with 229. During my Masters at WPI, 5.5 hours each weekend.

To be clear... I absolutely 100% do not recommend travel-mentoring like this. The schedule is exhausting and you need to make sure you're ready to sacrifice a lot to commit to it. I'm exceptionally bad at taking my own advice, is all.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I travel hundreds of miles to volunteer but our robotics site is only 13 miles from my home.

I'm gonna go 2300 plus miles )BOTH WAYS) driving to Vegas in week 5.

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

...Anybody want to share why they drive upwards of a few hours each trip to mentor their team?

I currently drive 35min one-way from my home to the robotics build site on weekends. However, the build site is directly on my way home from work, which is 55 minutes away from home.

I started the season off with a team that built about 10min away from my apartment. Unfortunately, my lease ended and I had to move further away than I'd like too. In October, I got a job at a company further away than the team but in the same direction (ironically I got the job because of my connection with the team), but just didn't have enough time before build season started to move back to the general area. I plan to move after build season and will hopefully be sub 20min away from both for competitions and next season.

[MooreteP]

When I touched the vortex and started mentoring for 195 in 1998, it was 45 minutes each way.
No point in going home, so my day started at 6:00 am, and went to 10 pm.
Every day, during the build season.

Now my trip is much shorter (15 minutes), so I can go home after work and more easily return to our build site.

Also, the district system is so much better. Sat-Sun competitions, no time off of work.
Also good from a field trip standpoint for the students. No school missed.
We used to travel to Philly on a coach bus and stay in expensive hotels.
Now we use a school bus, and if we travel to a competition that is farther from home, the hotels are less expensive. This year, every competition is a day trip.

[Chris Hibner]

The school is about 40 miles from home and work. It's about an hour drive normally.

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

I find it interesting how far some people go to mentor a team. Anybody want to share why they drive upwards of a few hours each trip to mentor their team? Is there not a team closer? I've always been a bit spoiled with team distribution (4 nearby teams when in high school and 4 nearby teams while in college).

I live in an area that is fairly affluent, and the vast majority of parents are professionals. The students at those schools have lots of great role models in their own home. I choose to mentor at a school in which most of the students have never met a real engineer before joining FIRST.

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

We meet 4 days a week, so the days off are nice too!

-Mike

If a team that has played Einstein each of the past three years meets four times a week during build season, that makes me feel good about our M-W-F-Sa schedule.

My weekday drive from the high school to my kids' schools to home back to the high school is 44 mins (17.7 mi) a day, according to Google. On Saturdays, it's 9 minutes (3.7 mi) one way.

[346CADmen]

12.5 miles from home or 17.1 miles from work. The work route has tolls too.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Peyton Yeung

I find it interesting how far some people go to mentor a team. Anybody want to share why they drive upwards of a few hours each trip to mentor their team? Is there not a team closer? I've always been a bit spoiled with team distribution (4 nearby teams when in high school and 4 nearby teams while in college).

40 or so miles. Depending on traffic that can be anywhere from 40 minutes to well north of 3 hours. (I hate Boston traffic). I'm with 125 because I like working with some of the mentors down there. Plus Brando kinda dragged me in.

Seriously, the minute he found out I was moving up here "You're joining 125" and that was that.