FIRST: COLLEGE ?

[Beth Sweet]

Freddy,

I think that one of the best parts of FIRST is that it gives the college kids a different chance, a chance to mentor. Looking at what I know about you, it would appear that you are approaching your first build season as a mentor. Let me tell you, it's a heck of a ride. Yes, the high school part as students is fun, but do you know what's even better? Getting to mentor the kids. It's pretty unlikely that there will be a college FIRST competition, college kids just don't tend to be able to commit that much over the course of 6 weeks. You're going to have an exam, a paper, etc. and you're just not going to be able to dedicate the kind of time this kind of competition requires. Even when it comes to college mentors, school always comes first and whenever possible, college mentors should be doubled up so that when something comes up (and it always does), you've got a backup. Other college groups work because there is not such a great commitment over a short series of time like in FIRST. While it would be pretty fun, I think that you'll see this build season that mentoring is a heck of a lot of fun too. (except when the kids pretend to cut their fingers off to see your reaction )