Why are YOU involved in FIRST?

[Spammy Badame]

I joined because both of my older sisters joined. Ever since i was really little my oldest sister has been my role model. She's the reason I'm playing trumpet now. But after one of her competitions (i believe the first one she went to) she came home saying how amazing it was and what-not. Since my parents both worked, and robotics was late, my younger sister and i would go with my mom to pick her up (this was lexie year). but we would go inside and see how helpful elizabeth was and how much she enjoyed it, and every once in a while we would have to go to the pit with her because my dad was out of town and my mom was working late and she was our only ride, so i would go and play with the bouncy balls. Then teresa joined, and she wouldn't tell us anything about it, but i saw all the dorky necklaces and other things she brought home.
so then i joined, i met a bunch of people, was told to sweep a lot, didn't do a whole lot on building the robot the first year, but i helped a lot with the crate and our cart. then, at regionals, i was on pit crew, and that just blew my mind. i had soo much fun there. and then, of course, sophomore year, i "met" (made friends with i guess is more what it should be called) my famous pit buddy, tiff. i did a lot on the robot and still had a super fun time.
Then, i got the date for robot rodeo, and realized that the date didn't conflict with band, like it had in the past, and i was super excited. then i got my cross country schedule and found out that robot rodeo is the same day as districts. so i quit cross country. now i'm going to be a mentor on a FLL team, and i went to our girls camp over the summer, and i'm vice president (along with britt) of our the south florida chapter of the RCU, and i'm finding more and more that robotics is life. I mean, i used to say that, but now i really know that full meaning of it. I can't wait until Robot Rodeo!!! or kickoff! or regionals!!! or nationals!!!!!! this year is gonna be great!

(sorry, that was kinda long, but i really meant it)

[spears312]

because its my anti-drug?

Actually I don't really know specifically why I joined FIRST, probably the fact of building robots and such. But I can say that I haven't regretted a single second so far.

[Aignam]

My sister told me all the geeks were in the Robotics Club. I was there so fast you wouldn't believe.

[KathieK]

I had heard about FIRST for many years since I worked for the UTC division that sponsors RAGE. When my son was in 8th grade we attended the UTC Regional and were blown away by the excitement. My husband and I attended his first team meeting as a freshman and have only missed one or two meetings since (much to my son's dismay).

Once I saw the positive effect the program has on students who might otherwise not be a part of anything in high school, I was hooked.

My goal this past year was to increase communications to parents, school administrators and town officials and I believe I have accomplished that.
My goal this year is to further advertise NEMO (non-engineering mentor organization) to FIRST team mentors and to organize workshops on FIRST team non-engineering topics at regional competitions.