FIRST after Highschool

[4throck]

I would recommend not mentoring, at least not for the first year. If you really want to, either find a new team or limit your contributions considerably. Remember that this is a new team now, with new leadership, and nothing undermines new leadership like an omnipresent old leadership. Switching from student to mentor isn't an easy transition, and the last thing that a team needs is a bunch of college kids doing everything. You are there to advise now, above all else keep that in mind.

[Carol]

Originally Posted by 4throck

I would recommend not mentoring, at least not for the first year. If you really want to, either find a new team or limit your contributions considerably. Remember that this is a new team now, with new leadership, and nothing undermines new leadership like an omnipresent old leadership. Switching from student to mentor isn't an easy transition, and the last thing that a team needs is a bunch of college kids doing everything. You are there to advise now, above all else keep that in mind.

There is another issue I have seen with former team members who come back to mentor their former teams right away. When they were a team member, they were a friend with all of the students (hopefully at least). When you are a mentor, yes you should be a friend to the students as well, but you also must be able to be a disciplinarian when needed. This isn't easy to do with, say, your buddy that last year you hung around with at the mall. I'm not saying it isn't possible but it isn't easy.

Helping out with a former team who may be short on manpower and needs another pair of hands is one thing. Being a full fledged mentor is another.

[Nuttyman54]

If you choose to mentor a team (or teams) while in College, make absolutely sure that you have excellent time-management skills and, more importantly, that the team could function without you. Things happen, you have hard courses, etc. If you have the option to take a break or reduce your activity without seriously affecting the team, you will be in a much better position (especially when midterms/finals come around).

I'm a sophomore in college and I mentor two teams right now, but I have to plan very carefully. School comes first, and at times where I don't have enough time to dedicate to both, I find other members to temporarily cover for me.

[65_Xero_Huskie]

I graduated last year, and i had decided that this team and program is too important to give up on it. I want the kids to experience the same things i did. I would suggest that people who graduate, if you had a fun time during your high school stay, to come back and help, atleast for one year.
Im splitting my time between college/work/and FIRST, but i enjoy doing it. And im sure others do too.

[KelliV]

Instead of writing out the wordy post that I was going to I figured I would keep it all short and sweet, or at least try to.

Pick an event over your spring break, get rooming arangements made, and travel to that event(Southwest is a cheap airline if your choice means you have to fly somewhere). Its a fun way to keep FIRST in your life without having to worry about the stress of getting stuff done at college. And yes, college is stressful, I go to art school and am stressed, I have learned over the past year and a half that art is a lot easier than engineering I can't even start to imagine how hard engineering school is.

If you still want to be involved look into something slightly smaller, try to start an FLL team during the fall of your sophomore year, it requires less intense participation on all parts and you will find it easier to gain credibility with elementry and middle school students.

-Kelli

[Kat Kononov]

I'm a senior too, and I have the same concern. My friend is a freshman in college, and she's in their robotics club. They mentor an FRC team, but not us. She said she'd rather mentor us, so she came to stay with me for this week.

I think what you might find is that your college mentors some other team but your allegiance lies with your old team. If that's ever the case for me, I think I'll mentor both teams, as well as participate in college level robotics.

[Darunada]

I graduated last year and am greatly enjoying mentoring my old team this year!

Our team is in a unique situation, with only a small handful of people from years past. It's almost all newer people.

When I contacted the team a few weeks before kickoff, I was disappointed to hear they didn't do much thinking about robotics, and the new guys didn't know much more than they did at the start of the year. I was originally planning on mentoring occationally, but I've been there every day this week, enjoying it.

I'm also enjoying teaching guys how to do things, it's cool being the one teaching instead of the one learning... but I still have plenty of learning to do too!


During the winter break, a handful of college mentors are helping, but as soon as school starts they won't be around. I live close to my high school, and I intend to help through the season... but probably not every day once they have a handle on things!

[Katy]

Please take a good look in the mirror before mentoring. Assess your motivations. Ask yourself "does a team need me or do I need a team?"

During highschool FIRST was, in many cases, basically our lives. You have many wonderful memories of your highschool team and that is as it should be. FIRST is designed for high school students. When you are in high school FIRST is all about you: your experiences, your inspirations, your team, your team's accomplishments. That doesn't mean you're selfish, it is how the program works.

When you become a mentor FIRST is not about you anymore. You are not a team captain with extra privileges. You are a professional adult attempting to share your experiences with the next generation of FIRST. You are, willingly or not, a role model. The program is not designed to give you anything except the joy of watching your students grow as individuals.

Becoming a mentor in order to maintain your highschool lifestyle of FIRST is an incredibly selfish and damaging thing for you to do. Refusing to adapt to your life is bad for you. This behavior is also not good for your students because you are being a bad example. Instead of being inspired by FIRST you are behaving as if you were addicted to it.

If you have any illusions that participating as a college mentor will be the same experience as being a team member I'd advise you take a year off for your own good. Get to know yourself. Learn to stand on your own two feet before you try to carry others.

In short the decision to become a mentor or not is not about what you want. It is about what is best for the team you will be mentoring.

[jee7s]

I graduated HS in 2000, and I got my BS in EE in 2004. I'm slated to get my PhD in Computational Intelligence and Adaptive Controls this coming May.

I returned to mentor my team last year, a 7 year lapse. I think I was better served by having that lapse, and I think my team was better served as well.

Some will bite my head off for this...but being involved in FIRST has a tendency to put "FIRST Goggles" on. Here's what I mean: Participants get all wrapped up in the FIRST universe that they forget the real universe. Yes, FIRST provides you a framework for the competition, but it also blinds some to the physical reality.

I've noticed this in dealing with students. During my 7 year absence, my team took on the philosophy that FIRST is a shop project, focusing on mechanics and neglecting programming/electronics. They hardly knew any programming, controls, etc...and I had to impart these topics onto them. Since everyone was so stuck in their ways, I worked with mostly new people. That new group and the old group have merged now, and this season is looking better. It did, however, stand in the way of their success last year.

For myself, I have come into a field that is reasonably related to FIRST. However, I know two people from my old team who became involved in IT software and civil engineering, two disciplines tangentially related to FIRST. We are all good engineers, and FIRST does a good job exposing students to engineering, but there is engineering beyond robotics.

Simply, leaving FIRST for a year (or 4, or more) gives you the opportunity to view your future, whatever field it may be in, from a neutral perspective. Getting your "FIRST Goggles" off allows you to bring new ideas into the FIRST universe, which helps the competition (if you ask me).

-JEE

[enpurx]

I am a college freshman, and I decided to keep in touch with my team throughout the year. This previous week I came back to my high school to assist the robotics team with design and prototyping. Because last year was our team's rookie year, I don't feel like I know enough to mentor a team, even though my college does. Therefore, I just categorized myself as a "facilitator" instead of "mentor" and led discussions and did administrative tasks.

Unfortunately, it was very hard for me not to overpower the student leaders, especially because I did not agree with a lot of the things they were doing. I kept having to remind myself that I cannot be biased because I am no longer "on" the team; I'm just a facilitator.

I'm planning on visiting and helping remotely whenever my team needs me, but I am going to put my college stuff first. When I graduate, I'll think about becoming a serious contributor to the team, but until then, I'm going to volunteer the time I do have to help out my team.

So, to answer your question, I think you should volunteer your time to help a FIRST team if there's one near your college. It's a wonderfully rewarding experience, but make sure you can handle your college coursework.

[Nica F.]

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread. It's really great to hear what everyone else did post high school.
I do agree that it is one person's choice and everything but it's nice to know to what factors other people made the decision based upon.

Thanks everyone

[Otaku]

I would imagine that I might not mentor, at least not for a while. I'll definitely attend local competitions if they're there, though, because the opportunity to see what a bunch of high schoolers without engineering degrees and tons of experience can think up, and how practical their application of these designs are. I think that's my favorite part of the competition, too. Just checking out the 'bots, especially since I know how much thought it takes to build one of these things.


Thank god I don't have to make that decision right now though -- I'm a 11th year, meaning I have this year and next year of FIRST left, which is plenty of time to have a great time.

[Jeff Waegelin]

When I graduated from HS (back in 2003), I went through much the same decision process you're going through now. I really wanted to stay involved with FIRST, because it was something I really enjoyed, but I also was concerned about having enough time, classes, and the like. Initially, I decided I was going to take a year off, volunteer, and not be involved with a team.

As the season rolled around, though, I couldn't stay away. I decided to go back to my high school team, and help them out. They were in a transition year, with lots of new people in leadership roles, and I figured I could lend some experience to the new organization. In the end, it wasn't really such a good idea. Going back to work as a mentor with the same students who had been my peers the season before was a challenge. We also had a new teacher, and that posed some conflict - I wanted to have the responsibilities as an adult mentor, but she saw me as this 18 year old kid who was in high school less than a year previously. Needless to say, it wasn't the best situation, and I really wasn't ready to handle the responsibilities of being a mentor.

On top of this, I had been spending all my weekends back home in Rochester, and sometimes skipping class and homework assignments so I could leave early for a meeting (it was an hour drive home). I still was doing okay in school, but not as well as I had the semester before.

At that point, I seriously considered quitting FIRST entirely. I hadn't had much fun, I was burned out, and came close to calling it quits. Fortunately, a friend of mine knew some of the people involved with a team in Ann Arbor (where I went to college), and got me in contact with them. That turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made in FIRST. The new team was much closer (5 minutes from my dorm), they were structured to allow the college mentors specific roles in the team, and I had a chance to build a proper mentor-student relationship from the ground up. My year mentoring my old team had also given me new perspective on how to run a team, and how to be a mentor. With some help from other experienced mentors, I was able to have a great season, and eventually became the design manager, and then the team leader. I got to see some of the students that were freshmen and sophomores become upperclassmen and leaders... it really was a truly rewarding experience. The best thing was at IRI (my last event with the team) when the mother of one of those original freshmen came and told me how I had been a role model and inspiration for her son. It made me feel like I had really made a difference to those kids.

So, the main things I got from this experience:
- Trying to mentor your old high school team is not always a good idea... it's better to get a fresh start in a new place.
- College freshmen are not always ready to be mentors... they can learn, but it usually takes a season or so to really develop into a good mentor.
- If you do mentor in college, find a team that's close! Your free time and grades will thank you.
- Mentoring can be a great experience if you approach it right, and there's nothing better than being able to help give another student the same experience that inspired you.