Breaking the Geek-FIRST Bias

[Kristina]

Here's another way of looking at it:

Maybe people aren't concerned as much with the "geek-bias" as much as they are worried about being excluded from another clique. A lot of you may be scratching your head or just thinking that I'm crazy but the "popular crowd" is not the only group of people on campus who can be exclusionary. I'm not saying that this is universally true, but many times a group such as the robotics team can be consciously or subconsciously exclusive, or even just appear that way to others.

It's easy to say that it's people's loss if they can't figure it out and how great FIRST is, but isn't the purpose of FIRST to inspire people in science and technology? Why is this subject so near and dear to me? Because I would have been one of those people who didn't get it. It's not that I was afraid of being labeled a geek, I already know that I am, but rather that the robotics team at our high school was a really tight-knit group, and they all seemed to be like the same type of person...the type of person I couldn't identify with. However, after some active recruitment by my friend, the team leader, I joined in and realized how unique the personalities were and how many different opportunities FIRST provided.

So in my humble opinion, I think that FIRST should not be a passive club in terms of recruitment. Sure you can have the mentality of "they can come, and we will be here when they're ready to accept our geekness" but I think if you want a spectrum of ideas and talents, you have to go out and get people. It's great for FIRST to be a training ground for people who have already decided to be engineers but wouldn't it be even better if you get more people interested in science and technology, and the different ways that people can use their talents in that field?