Why did you join FIRST?

[NorviewsVeteran]

Originally Posted by J93Wagner

In effect, FIRST basically chose me. It has had a major impact on my life at school, at home, and at other places, all in a positive way.

Yeah, it does that occasionally...

[ExarKun666]

In the year of 2008 I got sucked into the vortex known as FIRST. My chemistry teacher just randomly came up to me one day, and said, hey we are starting a robotics team here at the high school would you be interested. She described it as a project that you work on with members from JPL. My thoughts back then were: "Oh cool I can work on robotics, and do the stuff that JPL does like the Mars rover". Which I now think is a weird first thought to have. We started the club with just four members, including myself and we moved to little robots (half of the size of those used in FTC games). After that another teacher came in and told us about a competition in January, and the entire team [since it was or Rookie Year] had no idea what was going on until the kickoff day hit, and then we were thrown into the mess not knowing really where to start. We had sign ups for who wanted to be on drive build, attachments, programming,strategy,ect..., and I choose programming, which was odd back then because I felt obligated to despite the fact, that back then I hated programming because the only thing I ever programmed was 3D video game, which was extremely frustrating. As the club grew, the programming part of the team started with six, by the end of the second week, I was the last one in the programming group, but I did not pull out. We had very little mentor help, and the entire team didn't have much, if any experience with engineering. Through persistence and determination we got to the LA Regionals that year, and won the Rookie All-Star Award, went to Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia, and by that time we had grown to twenty members, we didn't win anything, but it was an incredible experience for our team! This second year we were placed 7th, and 6th seeded team. We didn't win any awards at the regionals, but this past second year was more of a learning experience to find out how to become a strong veteran team. I never regretting joining the club or just dropping out because of the lack of people in the club (in the beginning), and never wavered when it came to my tasks as the only programmer for the team for the past two years. Since I am a senior this past year I had to choose a replacement, which was the hardest thing to do, knowing that I was being replaced, and that I was leaving as a student competitor. On the brighter side, I do plan to come back and mentor when I can during college, and later on as well.

[Akash Rastogi]

My brother said I had to otherwise he'd beat me up.

True.

[flyingcrayons]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

My brother said I had to otherwise he'd beat me up.

True.

well now your glad he made the threat arent you??

i joined FIRST unknowingly. when i joined robotics last year, i thought it was just a bunch of nerds getting together and building a robot for fun. then i heard a competition was coming up, and i got curious. i talked to a friend who was already on the team, and he explained the concept of FIRST. the first competition i went to was BE 6... i got a glimpse of rack n' roll... after that i was hooked, and proud of it!!

[galewind]

brunswick eruption --- getting people hooked on first since (at least) 2002

[FRC4ME]

Back in 2003, I was homeschooled and was involved in very few activities, but I always had a passion for science, technology, and "the way things work." Anway, so one night I was watching the Discovery Channel and saw a documentary about this thing called FIRST Robotics. They followed three teams through the competition season. All I remember thinking is that it was really cool, and I would love to be involved some day, but I thought it was only for "that group" of super-elite young geniuses that I could never be a part of. Oh well. I quickly forgot about it and never thought I'd see anything about FIRST again. Being very young at the time, I didn't remember detials such as team numbers and such. I just remembered it was called FIRST, it was about robots, and the detailed rules to Stack Attack (not sure why I held onto those particular details).

Fast forward to 2007. FIRST had grown significantly. I moved, and my parents decided it was time to let me out into the world with public high school. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I heard about a local FIRST Robotics team. My mind went back to the Discovery Channel documentary from years ago. I didn't remember much, but I did remember that it was something I had liked and wanted to try. I decided to go to a meeting to check things out.

It is nerve-wracking to think of how close I was to not joining. I missed the official informational meeting at the beginning of the school year, and almost decided to just forget about the idea. Then, after going to a (rather boring) first meeting, I wondered if the program was worth 20+ hours/week of my time during this six-week period they called, "build season." In the end, though, I decided to stay and give the program a shot for one year. I now consider that to be the greatest decision of my life.

This past build season - my senior year and the last with my current team - couldn't have been a better cap. I got to see my team win its first ever Championship award - for the design of a component I was directly involved in creating. But perhaps the best part is, it took me until my senior year to realize that the team I was on - Team 339, "Kilroy" - was one of the three teams covered in the 2003 documentary. Yes, that very group of students and mentors I remember seeing on TV six years ago, wishing but never daring to believe that I could one day join their ranks, I am now a part of.

Needless to say, I no longer have doubts that anything is possible, no matter how unlikely.

[BrendanB]

Back in 2003, my brother got involved at Londonderry High School in founding team 1058 The Dragoons (Later renamed the PVC Pirates from their 2004 robot that resembled a pirate ship). I went to GSR with some other homeschooled friends and we started an FLL team that fall. I competed two more years after that in another FLL team and then took a break from FIRST in 2007 to take some computer and engineering classes at BAE. At that point, I didn't know if I desired to pursue engineering anymore and that was when my brother began to pester me to get involved with FRC as he saw that I would be good at it based on what he saw from mentoring my FLL teams. Some friends I had met through homeschooling recommended that I join Mechanical MAYHEM and I did for the 2008 season, and have stayed on.

Getting back into FIRST was one of the best decisions I've ever made. And now I am working to get my younger brothers involved with FLL.

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

My brother said I had to otherwise he'd beat me up.

True.

My siblings, on the team its rookie year, would prolly beat me up now for my contributions. Its crazy how they just thought of it as an "after school thing" and I see it as a lifestyle.

I reallly like the stories.

[Akash Rastogi]

Haha, well the first event that got me involved was PARC from 2000. It was just an awesome time with lots of big machines. I was hooked to FRC at the age of 8. Us doing well at the competition wanted me to get into robotics even more. We were finalists I think.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by FRC4ME

But perhaps the best part is, it took me until my senior year to realize that the team I was on - Team 339, "Kilroy" - was one of the three teams covered in the 2003 documentary. Yes, that very group of students and mentors I remember seeing on TV six years ago, wishing but never daring to believe that I could one day join their ranks, I am now a part of.

This is a wonderful and incredible journey. You might consider sharing it with the FIRST marketing team. The link and information is here. The wow factor for me is that you remembered the name, FIRST, and that you committed to trying it and stuck it out, ending up living the dream.

Amazing.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by FRC4ME

...Needless to say, I no longer have doubts that anything is possible, no matter how unlikely.

FIRST runs on volunteers, and some say that means we don't get paid. But it isn't so. Stories like yours are the pay that keeps volunteers coming back, season after season.

[Jay H 237]

FIRST didn't exist at our high school when I graduated from there in 1995.

I did spend all my free periods and time after school hanging around the wood and metal shops working on projects. After I graduated I still kept in touch with some of the teachers. In 1998 the woodshop teacher decided to begin a FIRST team at the school. He had some students interested and was looking at getting some mentors together. Needless to say I found out about FIRST when I stopped in at the school one day and choose to become part of it. He was able to get enough people and support that Team 237 (Sie-H20-Bots) was formed in the fall of 1998 to compete in the FIRST's 1999 season that January.

I'm still with the team, one of the few original people from when the team was created. There was two seasons I missed many meetings due to work schedule changes but I like being part of the team and it gives me something to do for the winter months. I just hate traveling and only been to a few comps. The build is more fun for me.

[David Brinza]

This is one of the best CD threads ever. Take the time to read the stories!

I blame my oldest son, Matt, for getting me hooked on FIRST (sound familiar, petek?)

At Matt's request, I attended the inaugural St. Louis Regional in 2002. After Bomb Squad emerged as regional winner, Matt asked me whether I'd go to "the Nats". I told him I couldn't, but somehow found myself at Epcot a few weeks later. That definitely was a life-changing experience. The energy in the pits, the open-air Einstein field and Zone Zeal was, like, Disneyland for me. As I roamed through the pits, I came across Team 980. It turns out their founding mentor, Robb Hogg, worked across the hall from my office at JPL. (Yes, I flew 2200 miles to make that connection!) Robb invited me to help mentor the team, and the rest is history.

A couple of follow-up notes:

Both of my sons graduated from Team 16, an outstanding organization. Matt received his BS in Computer Science from UCSB in 2007 and is "stuck" in Santa Barbara. Clayton, robot driver on Einstein in 2008, is now a business major with IT emphasis at Univ. of Arkansas.

I don't think I'll ever graduate from FIRST. Since 2003, I've inspected a couple hundred robots, taken over the reins for Team 980, helped form Team 2404 and, in my spare time, became an FTA.

For me, there's no exit strategy. Then again, FIRST pays me very well (just not in $$).

[delsaner]

I will be completely honest...

In middle school, I was very gullible and I believed the robotics stereotype. I did not join it in middle school, since I did not want to be considered a geek.

When freshman year came along in high school, I wanted to start an extra-curricular activity that would help me with engineering, since that is what I aspired to be (I am still aspired to be an engineer). I decided to join the robotics, wondering what it was like. Now that I have been on the robotics team, I was CLEARLY wrong about what robotics students were like. Robotics was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I still couldn't believe that I thought the robotics stereotype was true. I met some of my best friends through robotics. I definitely have a better chance of getting into college. I am so glad I decided to join FIRST robotics. I am a geek, and I am extremely proud of it.

-Eric

[Katie_UPS]

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