FIRST Withdrawl

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by M.O.R.T.

For the college kids: What do you do instead of FIRST? It may not have sunk in yet but once the construction preiod is here and you have nothing to do for 6 weeks it'll hit ya.

The majority of my time is taken up by my sorority. I joined in my "lost FIRST season" (aka 2003), and I now serve as the VP of Scholarship (basically keeping the chapter GPA in the top spot among all the other groups) and the Triangle Coorespondent (I write articles for the Triangle, our national magazine). I also am blessed with a little sister this semester (basically a new member that I mentor), and I'm in the midst of spoiling her terribly with gifts. They really like when I go do FIRST stuff, since I can count those hours towards my volunteer requirement.
Though it depends on the chapter, going greek is an easy step for FIRSTers, since most of it is about shared experience....which is the same thing that FIRSTers do every year. We all have gone/will go through the 6 weeks...greeks were all new members once and had to go through their own 6 week process. Thus, just as we can go anywhere and strike up a conversation with anyone in a FIRST shirt, greeks can strike up a conversation with any other greek, because they both went through similar experiences.

I do other stuff on campus: I have an amazing job, I'm on the Steering Committee (they plan class-wide events, such as the Senior Ball), and I mentor the Babson-Olin Catholic Association (I was their president my sophomore year, and now that it's been passed on I mentor the executive board to make sure that they stay on the right track).

I'm of the school of thought that a FIRSTer should have other experiences under their belt besides FIRST...although some people are ok with only doing FIRST (which isn't a bad thing at all)...there are some people that work better when they're doing other things as well. The best part about it is being able to pull in experiences from elsewhere and apply them to FIRST - many clubs & orgs run similarly, and you can bring stuff from other places and apply them in a way that the FIRST community may have never thought of.