Starting a college team

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by D.J. Fluck

Shannon Schnepp of The Purdue University Team #461 put together this very good white paper about starting a college FIRST team....check it out.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pa...er&paperid=210

I also reccomend contacting people from 461, Eric O of 229, Anne Bergeron of 1002, Amanda Morrison of 1020, or Erin Rapacki of 125. These people helped start up teams or helped get a team back in line (and they also spoke at the success in college with FIRST confrence at the championships).

What I think is probably one of the better routes, or at least what I am trying now to do, is to get a high school teacher interested in the project. It wouldn't be bad to get like purdue calls them champions. I see myself as needing at least one champion but my goal would be like at least one from 4 areas. It would be good to get a high school teacher, a college professor or dean, and a high school administrator behind the program. The last for me would be important for me because of the distance and out of state travel. Other champion regions would be a parent or group of parents. My original teams parents have done so much for the team and I see them as important to get on board to build a successful program.

But I would start with the high school and then work with the college. But then again all you need is three high school students and 5000 dollars. So it can work a lot of different ways. Definitely take some time to talk with some of the college FIRST conference people. I got a lot of good comments from Amanda, Erin, Anne, Eric, and the rest.

Last of all, don't start a team if you don't have time. You change a lot, learn a lot, grow up a lot, and are busy doing all this a lot your first year. What I did this year was go home to mentor on the weekends. You can find a nearby team and go help whenever your schedule allow. Especially with a triple major starting a team might not be great for you unless you've got the organization and time management skills to keep yourself somewhat sane. You have to sleep occasionally. At least that is what they tell me.