Virtual Team Forum

[Bill Gold]

Originally posted by A. Snodgrass
Actually Im against the creation of an award strictly for college students. Let me explain why: I see too many college students not being able to balance well college and FIRST mentorship as it is!
With the new drive to push college students as mentors and to get their colleges involved in FIRST, and the time they devote to the program, how do they have time to seriously split their lives. College is a little different then the workplace, and frankly I think it is a place to prepare ALL of us to be better mentors. This is not to say that you shouldnt mentor or volunteer, but it is to say that there needs to be balance. Also Ive seen students who have devoted too much time to this program while in college get burned out, sometimes from both first and college.
Also why should college student mentors be considered any more special then the rest of the mentors who put in so much time and effort?

I think that each college student mentor can decide for themselves how they balance courses and mentorship. I'm at my own pace (studies-wise), and wouldn't trade my experiences as a college mentor in this program the past 2 years for anything. I think it would be a step forward for FIRST to recognize the commitment of college students in these programs either by creating a new award in the shadows of the Woodie Flowers Award, or by amending the current Woodie Flowers Award to make all mentors eligible. I, also, like the idea of morphing the Woodie Flowers Award like the Regional Chairman's and National Chairman's Awards (this was discussed at the San Jose Team Forum). 25 Regional Woodie Flowers Awards given out (1 per regional, and no one wins more than once), and then the National Woodie Flowers Award recipient is chosen from those 25.