Great Regional Human Interest Stories

[DjAlamose]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

At one team, the student turned out to be a young (probably 19) mentor. He told me that they had taken the 2-speed shifter off their bot to make weight, but that he had designed and machined it himself. He pulled out a metal container full of transmission parts and showed me how the ball-bearing shifter worked. It was a great moment.

If you like the fact that their mentor was young then you would love our team. We have 2 mentors under 20 (I’m 18) and 3 more between 20-25. I think that becoming a mentor is very hard because I was so used to doing everything instead of teaching it then letting the students go off and do it. But it is great to see the students and how proud they are of the machine that they made.

But that was off topic. Normally during competitions I am glad to see that in previous years as a student and driver that when we communicated to our alliance about strategy we were not bombarded by the mentors of that team (although it does happen and we thank them and say we wish to talk with the students). It is great that the entire basis of the competition is focused around students getting involved and I’m glad that the mentors see it that way.