Women of First

[ThomasH]

Hey, i know im a guy posting but i would just like to say congrats to all the women in First. I've been to the waterloo regional and is currently in the GTR. And as i walk by all the pits i see more and more women taking part in this male dominated area. In my school we tried to get girls involved but none wished to have any part. so when i walk by and i see teams like S.W.A.T and teams with women taking an active role in their team i cant help but think how proud i am to be part of First and it's diversity. so ive started this thread for guys and girls to start congratulating all the women that make First special.
-Tyler

[Erin Rapacki]

FIRST is awesome!
(psst... I just got hired at iRobot )

Thank you to all the female roboticists who inspired me along the way!

[thatphotochick]

yeh it's weird..too many guys. last year there was the same amount of girls on my team..8..but there's more taking part in programming and machinery. it's good to see some gals and women out there making robots

[Gabe]

I hold the deepest respect for all of the girls on our team, because we cannot function as a team without them. Last year our team was 5 boys, 5 girls. This year it is ten boys, ten girls. Our team leader is a girl, our driver is a girl, our team artist is a girl, as are some of P.R., scouts, and mechanical. We realized last year of how unique we were as a team, and it makes the whole team proud, because it means that we are doing something right. It means that our efforts to spread the message of FIRST truly is reaching everyone, boys and girls alike.

The Quixilver team website is:
http://lelandrobotics.com/2006/Lelan...tics/Home.html

[oretta.flood]

Originally Posted by ThomasH

Hey, i know im a guy posting but i would just like to say congrats to all the women in First. I've been to the waterloo regional and is currently in the GTR. And as i walk by all the pits i see more and more women taking part in this male dominated area. In my school we tried to get girls involved but none wished to have any part. so when i walk by and i see teams like S.W.A.T and teams with women taking an active role in their team i cant help but think how proud i am to be part of First and it's diversity. so ive started this thread for guys and girls to start congratulating all the women that make First special.
-Tyler

Hey it's nice to see that guys care that girls are apart of the team. It means alot me and a bunch other girls Im sure. some people (like me) don't do alot of the machinary cause quite frankly machines scare me, but I attempt and will eventually get it. I love FIRST. it's alot of fun. People (girls) don't know what they are missing out on. It's something that definitly will change from the "nerdy" thing it is when people realize that it's a blast, and if not to bad. NERDS ARE COOL. lol. Im proud to be a Simbotics (1114) nerd.

~Loretta

[ThomasH]

Originally Posted by oretta.flood

Hey it's nice to see that guys care that girls are apart of the team. It means alot me and a bunch other girls Im sure. some people (like me) don't do alot of the machinary cause quite frankly machines scare me, but I attempt and will eventually get it. I love FIRST. it's alot of fun. People (girls) don't know what they are missing out on. It's something that definitly will change from the "nerdy" thing it is when people realize that it's a blast, and if not to bad. NERDS ARE COOL. lol. Im proud to be a Simbotics (1114) nerd.

~Loretta

Im glad so many teams have such a high capacity of women on their team. it really shows that we have truly come a long way since the whole "nerd robot guy machinary" thing. but yea, im sure that as time progresses First will overcome the stereotype and everyone will consider it equally. Simbotics congrats on having women on your team Cudos to you. P.S dont let machinery scare you. just be aware and its all good!

[Bill_Hancoc]

im gonna put a shout out to Lisa perez because i dont know where our team would be without her

[Daniel Morse]

I feel that women becoming involved with FIRST is excellent, I strongly believe that this will have a positive benefit on society as a whole. I wish that our own team had more women on it; however, we only have one. As a senior and president of our team I am spending time in guiding the younger generation of robotiscists into bringing more women into the team in future years. My commendations go to those women who have chosen to become part of this wonderful organization and I encourage you and everyone keep making women a strong part of FIRST.

[tiffany34990]

I agree there are so many female mentors and students that simply have affected everyone including me. They have become my role models and friends. Women can succeed as many of them have shown. They go up and beyond at times facing many challenges. Thank you for inspiring me as well and good luck on your own endeavors.

And thank you for this post. It means a lot to many females in FIRST I can imagine especially to me. Many females don't get recognized like they should. Both males and females in FIRST have done great things and I thank everyone in FIRST for making FIRST a great community to be apart of. FIRST continues to be an inspiration to all.

[ThomasH]

Yea everyone has contributed great to First. but in a male 'dominated' field Women deserve the agknowledgement of stepping to the plate and proving that they are capable and in alot of cases are the right people for the job. so guys lets thank the girls on our teams and on others for being themselves and for being such a crucial part of First!

[ScoutingNerd175]

Thanks.

No really, I just wrote a paper on women in science and technology, and the numbers are pretty intense.

Some quotes from my research

Worcester Polytechnic Institute is 76% male, 24% female. Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute is 75% male, 25% female. Rochester Institute of Technology is 69% male, 31% female. (U.S. News, 193-219) In the year 2000, 20.5% of students receiving bachelors degrees in engineering were female.

In the 2002-2003 school year 44.5% of medical school graduates were women.

So the numbers of women in engineering are not growing at the same rate that the numbers of women in medicine are growing. I think that FIRST is a wonderful program as for a promoting interest in science and technology. I didn't even consider being an engineer until I joined my team. (Syracuse University L.C. Smith College of Engineering & Computer Science, Class of 2010, almost definitely at this point)

Our team is proud to have a female driver this year.

[WhatevaForever]

As an avid FIRSTer and past president of team 1138, I can vouch for the fact that it is hard to get young girls to join robotics teams at least at first. When I helped found the team, I was the only girl. Since then we have gotten a few others here and there, but more women need to be involved especially in the design and building aspects of robotics and not just PR or scouting which, although very important, are often not very technical. And like the infamous Mark Leon say... "It's all about the math."

On the other hand, once a few girls start getting really interested, it becomes much easier to attract more female members to a team.

[itz_jet]

It seems like since our team started we've always had more girls than guys. Right now we're about 60% girls and they are all very active on the team. We also have 4 girls who lead different subdivisions of the robot during building season. I'm glad that there are more girls getting involved in FIRST because I think that we need more girls interested in the male dominated science and engineering fields.

[Lkr220]

I think having women in FIRST is very important. I know on my team, 1676, there are only 4 girls. Last year one of our female members graduated, but this year we got two new girls. All the girls on our team work hard alongside with the boys. From my experiences I would say that girls like to use the big power tools, but just don't know how to use them

Luckily for me, the only freshman girl on the team, a senior on the team kind of took me under his wing and taught me how to use some of the tools, such as the drill press and band saw. For me it was an extremely exciting time because I had always wanted to use the big tools, and had dreamed of learning when I joined the team.

Also FIRST really inspired me to get more involved with science and technology. Since joining my interest has skyrocketed! I join Science League and next year I'm even dropping my lunch so I can take another science class. I hope that other women see how much fun and how exciting FIRST really is and decide to join as well because in the fields FIRST deals with women are definetly undermanned (or should i say womanned )

All I really know though is that I am a woman in FIRST and I am extremely proud to be in it!!

[Libby K]

i agree completely with everyone who's posted above.

as one of the few girls on our team, i feel as if part of our team doesn't value my work as much.

however, everyone's contribution is just as important.

i love being on a FIRST team, and it's completely assured me that engineering is what i want to do.

thanks FIRST! =]. i really hope women in all schools see how awesome this program is and join. on our team, we're trying to recruit more girls...even if they don't "do" science...they can be on other parts of our team, like art, spirit, scouting....

and usually when they SEE how cool this program is first hand, they'll want to get their hands in it, as was the case with a friend of mine.