All female team- students AND mentors

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Marie

I am a mentor on a rookie team.
(the students for the team haven't been selected (that's going on now)).

We are an all female team, where students are from all girls high school, and all the mentors are female too.

I know there are other FIRST teams that are all female, specifically all female students. Are there other teams out there that are all female students and all female mentors??

Welcome to FIRST. I think you may have stumbled on a first in the program.

I don't know of any other all girls team who has all female mentors as well.

The one I knoW about a little in depth is the one Reese mentioned earlier.

Originally Posted by rees2001

the other all girls team is Where's Waldo. They are a team of Canadian girls and they won the Rookie Inspiration Award at FLR in 2005.

Team 1547 is also from an all girls school, yet they have male and female mentors consisting of parents, teachers, and a few technical engineers outside of the school itself from GM I believe.


As far as your status to having only female mentors, I would like to know if that is your choice, or just how it happened?

[ChrisH]

In the Los Angeles area we have five all-girl teams. Archer (362), Louisville (1070), Ramona Convent, Marymount (974), and returning this year after a several year break, Immaculate Heart (not sure if they will get old number or not).

Last year I only saw female mentors around Archer's pit but I'm not sure about the whole situation. They had a new leader last year and we haven't talked much. They had male mentors in the past but I did not see them last year.

Louisville's team leader is male and Marymount has at least one male mentor.

I don't think I've ever seen male mentors with Ramona Convent and they have been around for several years.

Immaculate Heart will have at least one male mentor.

So there are two teams from the LA area that might be all-female. However my observations are only what I have seen at competitions so there might be behind the scenes help I am not aware of.

The Space Cookies ( a girl scout team ) from the San Jose area have at least one female mentor. They were at the Championship last year and I don't remember any guys in their pit, at least not as mentors.

Here's a story for girls that think that robotics is "too nerdy". When I was in high school we had electives for PE. One of them was folk dancing and I was the only guy that signed up for it. I took a lot of ribbing until somebody figured out that I was the only guy in a room of 40 girls and that I had to put my arm around them on a regular basis. Then they decided maybe I was smarter than I looked. It works both ways...just saying

[1527Michiru]

I recently found out about a new all-girls team call ed hte Roboetts
I thought it was a cute name.

I don't know what, if any, regional they're going to, but I'm glad there are so many All-Girls teams. I start to feel rather alone in the Female Engineer Field being the only girl in Boinic Battalion.


I hope you guys do well this year!
~Casey

[JudyVandy]

If you allow parents to be a part of it, and who wouldn't want them, you're bound to get some dads involved.

My 2 cents says parents are a great asset! Attract all you can, moms and dads.

[Marie]

Some background info, that will answer some of the questions in the thread.

Thanks to all for adding their messages to this thread.
I'm was surprised to learn there are so many all female student teams.

Our team does not have a name. Heck it's barely a team, the student applications are due back today, and interviews next week.

This is the 4th team sponsored by Xerox in the Rochester NY area, and it was requested that this be all Xerox female mentors.

In reality, as this team gets up and running, I believe male influence will come from the parents as well as other FIRST teams, etc.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Marie

Some background info, that will answer some of the questions in the thread.

Thanks to all for adding their messages to this thread.
I'm was surprised to learn there are so many all female student teams.

Our team does not have a name. Heck it's barely a team, the student applications are due back today, and interviews next week.

This is the 4th team sponsored by Xerox in the Rochester NY area, and it was requested that this be all Xerox female mentors.

In reality, as this team gets up and running, I believe male influence will come from the parents as well as other FIRST teams, etc.

For the Ruckus can I give your team a name for the competition?

[Scott Carpman]

The only all girls teams that I'm aware of in NYC are Double X 1594 and the Iron Maidens 2265.

[Ellery]

Hi Marie,

I got some very good news for your team today.. some additional donors to the cause. Check your Email if you have not done so yet. By the way I made this temporary logo for your team for Ruckus. See the Ruckus Website link below.

http://www.ruckus.penfieldrobotics.com/teams/

The primary push for the all female team came from Ursula Burns, our Corporate President. I was told it was always a dream of hers to have an all female team... since she is an excellent female engineering role model. Actual if you haven't checked Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women

Also available on Fortune.com:
The full list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business;
“Xerox's Dynamic Duo,” an article about how Anne and Ursula share power and manage succession at Xerox.

[macnerad]

Marie,

I know that the build season is just about over, so I am curious to see how the all-female team worked. I would like to hear more after the season is over of course.

I am a founding mentor for Team 692, the Fembots. For my experience, keeping it an all-female team would be quite difficult because the dads really enjoy working with there daughters. Although the school recruited more girls whose moms were engineers because of the robotics program.

Good luck in your endeavors!!
Mary Beth "Sensei MegaByte" Prendergast

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by 1527Michiru

I recently found out about a new all-girls team call ed hte Roboetts
I thought it was a cute name.

I don't know what, if any, regional they're going to, but I'm glad there are so many All-Girls teams. I start to feel rather alone in the Female Engineer Field being the only girl in Boinic Battalion.


I hope you guys do well this year!
~Casey

As a mentor for the Robettes (2177), i can tell you - all the students are females, and almost all the mentors are male (thats just how it worked out... it can be darned hard finding a female engineer that wants to sacrifice this much time!). We'll be at the St. Louis and Minneapolis regionals this year.