FIRST for Non-Engineering Students

[keehun]

Originally Posted by Shmee

(Incidentally, have you competed in the National Trumpet Competition? One of my best friends also plays trumpet.)

I have not. I wish I was the caliber of these contestants! I could throw my academic life away and practice trumpet all day, but I don't think that's a sustainable plan, either, since even if I practice 10 hours a day and start winning these competitions, there will always be someone better than me -- to get that one orchestral job that I needed to keep myself fed. I'm not too interested in the pure performance and competing with others. I want to spread and share the passion of music by being a teacher. Nonetheless, I have auditions coming up and I'm preparing hard for those! It sucks that it coincides with the robotics season... Anyway...

[ehochstein]

Keehun, just being a city away and having not quite the same experience for the first half of your story, but the ending about choosing between band and Robotics/Engineering. I remember everyday at my elementary school going to the library and hoping, that there was a new robotics book in the robot section there. I wanted to know all there was about robotics since I was in elementary school. By my first grade year I had already read every book on robotics in the school library. But once fifth grade came around for me, I too joined the band group in Bloomington. Originally I started with the violin, but after playing the violin for about 6 months I switched to percussion. At this point I forgot all about robotics, band was my life I was in the marching band, I stayed after school every single day to practice my malleting skills on the marimba. I did this until my sophomore year, when I heard about this new thing at my school called "Robotics Club," now many of my friends were in this club, and they convinced me to join, because I too was the so called computer geek of my grade. They said I could fix a computer just by looking at it. My best memory of this was one day when the IT staff was gone, and I ended up fixing all of the computers in my elementary school because of a programming error Apple made with Appleworks at the time >.< anyways, I joined the robotics club and at the same time I joined the school play, which was Charlie and the Chocolate factory, now I admit that, that was a big mistake. I swear no one will ever see me dressed up like an oompa loompa for as long as I live. I ended up missing most of the robotics season because I was always at play practice. The next year I realized that robotics was a big thing in my life and I quit everything except for Band, Marching band and Robotics. I tried so hard for robotics that year (Which was last year) and I ended up becoming the team's driver that year, and the lead programmer. After winning the 10,000 Lakes regional (which I must say REALLY inspired me) and going to Georgia (I must recommend you to going to this even if your team is not going Keehun, It is an amazing experience to have in your life.) I became the summer captain of the team, and ran meetings and events for the team throughout the summer. After the summer past, so at the beginning of this year I was voted captain of the robotics team. Now over this past summer I also participated in Marching Band (Drumline which required about 40 hours of practice every week) and I am in the Wind Ensemble at my school. Because of my continued practicing on the mallets since freshman year, I am now the best mallet player in the school and I can play some things even college members cannot. Alas, I am captain of the robotics team, and leading is a very hard thing to do on Jefferson's Robotics Team, especially since we only have 3 members coming back from last year, not including myself. I have a team of 17 newbies that have no idea what they are doing, but it is my job to inspire and create things in their mind that I hope will inspire them to become like me and lead the robotics team one day. This year we re-named our Robotics Club to Robotics Team. All of this was possible because I planned out the entire season as best as possible before the season started. That officially meant that we were a varsity sport at our school. Marching Band is also a Varsity Sport at our school, which posed quite a large problem. I ended up losing about 2 solos in the drumline because I kept getting too sick from trying to bobble Robotics, Drumline/Marching Band, and homework all into one. I had to make a decision between Robotics and band, and of course I chose band because, well I don't know why I chose it but I did. Now that The robotics season is here I have had to almost quit band, that means the only time I am in band all day is during my last period. I don't have time to practice anything even after school. Now overall I would have to say that my best experience in high school is not one thing, but two. The friends I made in Band, and the accomplishment I felt after going to my first FIRST Robotics Competition Regional. Band helped me get through the rough times, and Robotics inspired me to become a better person, and to try to help people become better people themselves. As a career choice I think I am going to go with Engineering, why? Because I can engineer and still play the mallets, but I can play mallets and engineer. Music has helped me through my life more then I can explain with mere words, but I can always still have music with engineering.

Yeah, this is kind of all my thoughts poured into one run-on paragraph. I've never been good a essays sorry! D: I hope it is at least understandable/readable!

[keehun]

Originally Posted by Wiifi

I am now the best mallet player in the school and I can play some things even college members cannot.

Hey, were you at the University of Minnesota Honor Band? What grade are you in? You definitely need to try out for that and/or All-State.

Anyway, thank you for all your stories! Looks like I'm not quite alone in having the internal debates... (Not that I honestly expected me to be the only person)

[delsaner]

I was on the exact same road as you are on right now. I was considering a career in the music field or the engineering field. After putting a lot of thought into the decision, and asking for peoples' thoughts and opinion regarding the two majors/fields, I decided to go for engineering. I will not list the reasons why I favored engineering instead of music, because I do not want to possibly persuade you from doing what you truly want to do (If you want me to give you my reasons, then I will).

I don't really know my scales at all. I'm a drummer for my schools marching band, so scales are not something I have experience with...

In regards to careers, I agree with the handful of people that have been saying that you should do what you want to do. A good career, in my opinion, is not only about making a decent profit, but it is also about having fun with what you want to do. As of now, I plan on going to college for mechanical engineering (maybe a double major in education), so I can be a physics teacher and/or an engineer when I become older. As it has been said before, do what you think is best for you, and do what makes you happy.

[cbeavers6790]

I am in a similar situation to you. I am involved in the build of our robot and am on the pit crew, but i do not plan on going into any field that involve what i am learning. I feel out of place when judges ask me what i want to go into, because i am not going into engineering, but i still enjoy doing robotics as an extra-curricular, and want to learn as much as I can. i may be only a sophmore, but i would say enjoy your time in robotics, but follow what you really want to do.

[Bill_B]

Keehun, the next time you've got the trumpet in your hands and there's a couple of bars of rest on the score, take the "measure" of your instrument and consider the engineering that must have been required to get it into your hands. Metallurgy, applied physics, etc. etc. all played a part in the fabrication of your horn. If FIRST is the reason you or anyone else has a degree of appreciation for some other discipline, then it's a good result for all of us.

[keehun]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

Keehun, the next time you've got the trumpet in your hands and there's a couple of bars of rest on the score, take the "measure" of your instrument and consider the engineering that must have been required to get it into your hands. Metallurgy, applied physics, etc. etc. all played a part in the fabrication of your horn. If FIRST is the reason you or anyone else has a degree of appreciation for some other discipline, then it's a good result for all of us.

You bring up something I've been thinking about. So some of the best trumpet players around have started up designing their own horns and making companies. Several well known are Vincent Bach and Monette (Monette is like the Lamborghini of all trumpets. 200hrs worth of hand-made artistry craft. Wynton Marsalis plays on one). I was thinking about prototyping my own horn and developing it as I become a better performer. Anyhow, it's just an idea...

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by keehun

I was thinking about prototyping my own horn and developing it as I become a better performer. Anyhow, it's just an idea...

That sounds like fun. When I was in high school I made a trombone out of PVC. A small funnel was used for the mouthpiece and a large one was used for the bell. The challenge was to make an instrument that can play a scale out of plumbing parts. It didn't sound great, but it actually worked.

[Carol]

We try and track our students, and over the past 10 years about 85% of our students go to college with plans to major in a STEM area - mainly engineering, but not all by far. In reality, a lot of these change their majors after a year or two for various reasons. In my experience almost half of all college students end up graduating in a field other than what they had planned with they started. (Okay, my experience in college was a long, long time ago)

One story from our team. We had a student on the team several years ago who had always wanted to study meteorology. He applied early decision to the meteorology department at Penn State and was accepted. In his first conference with his adviser, he was told the main reason he was accepted early was because of his FIRST experience. Colleges want you even for non-engineering majors. Go for what you enjoy.

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by cbeavers6790

I feel out of place when judges ask me what i want to go into, because i am not going into engineering, but i still enjoy doing robotics as an extra-curricular, and want to learn as much as I can.

There is no "correct" answer if the judges ask this question. The answer " i still enjoy doing robotics as an extra-curricular, and want to learn as much as I can" is honest and just fine.

Think about what it is you enjoy learning if you want to give a more specific response. The technical aspects? Working as a team? Meeting new people? Going to competitions? (I could list about 100 categories, but you get the idea).

What is it that keeps you working and learning on the team?

[KC1AJT]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

There is no "correct" answer if the judges ask this question. The answer " i still enjoy doing robotics as an extra-curricular, and want to learn as much as I can" is honest and just fine.

Think about what it is you enjoy learning if you want to give a more specific response. The technical aspects? Working as a team? Meeting new people? Going to competitions? (I could list about 100 categories, but you get the idea).

What is it that keeps you working and learning on the team?

good point