PreRookies, Mentoring and the future of FIRST

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

Prerookies- 7 months later

The prerookie idea has caught on here in NJ over the past 6 months. Since the original posting of this thread a number of teams have played as pre-rookies and now are registered in their own right as new rookies for the 2006 FIRST season.

These teams enter FIRST with the experience of dealing with robots, playing in a tournament and with friends on senior teams to mentor them through the first year.

My congratulations to the teams below and their mentors=

1807 Bristol-Myers Squibb & Allentown High School Allentown, NJ USA - mentored by teams 1089 and 25

1862 21st Century & Cliffside Park High School Cliffside Park, NJ USA - mentored by team 555

1881 Garrett Morgan Academy- BMW of North America/New Jeresy Community Development Corp. & National Society of Black Engineers - PTGI Chapter Paterson, NJ USA - who played at BE4 for the first time with their own robot refitted for the game from another comp- and mentored by Sabrina Varanelli of 1302

1882 Howell High School Farmingdale , NJ USA - winners of Duel on the Delaware!!!- mentored by 25

1923 West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North Plainsboro, NJ USA - mentored by 25 (Big Mike and friends)

1929 Credit Suisse & Montclair Board of Education & Montclair Board of Education Montclair, NJ USA - the all girls Montclair 2 team mentored by 555

It is good to see new schools joining FIRST and even better to see multiple senior teams working with them.

I am sure all of these teams will be a force to be reckoned with in their rookie season next spring.

WC

Yesterday my guys spent the day working with one of the new teams above and we got to wondering what the progress of the pre-rookies from BE 4 was.
So I thought I'd write and update on where they are today

1807 Bristol-Myers Squibb & Allentown High School Allentown, NJ USA - after working with 1089 this past fall, 1802 are flying like pros in the build season. They are in regular contact with 1089 and us and seem to be building right ion schedule

1862 21st Century & Cliffside Park High School Cliffside Park, NJ USA - 1862 is struggling a bit in their first season but they will get a machine built on time. They have been putting in a lot of time and have found an engineer to help them out.

1881 Garrett Morgan Academy- BMW of North America/New Jeresy Community Development Corp. & National Society of Black Engineers - PTGI Chapter Paterson, NJ USA - and mentored by Sabrina Varanelli of 1302-
I haven't heard anything of their progress. I know Sabrina knows her stuff and I am sure they are working.

1882 Howell High School Farmingdale , NJ USA - already veterans of VEX, the coach tells me they have a machine well under way. It should be a great one.

1923 West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North Plainsboro, NJ USA - these guys have a machine 3/4 built and should have it done and ready for programming by next week.

1929 Credit Suisse & Montclair Board of Education & Montclair Board of Education Montclair, NJ USA - the all girls Montclair 2 team mentored by 555 = with the veteran team support of 555 these ladies should be well set.


We plan on seeing at least several of these teams at the Feb 19th robot rally. I am really happy all of them are playing this year.

WC