Rookie Team & Chairman's

[Thee Alchemyst]

I was talking to my Coach, and he said this: "The Chairman's Award is going to two people: NASA, and to the Judges. It serves three purposes: NASA to show to the taxpayers that they're using their money wisely, to FIRST to show that we're expansionists, and lastly to show that we are moving forward and going to do our best to be around for years to come."

I realize what I am doing for my Chairman's Award essay (another student had typed out the Executive Summary) but I have one question: Keeping my coach's quote in mind, would it be better for the essay part of the CA to be in objective or a personal perspective? (I.e., say "the team" or "Team Alchemy" instead of "we" or "our".) More or less asking if this essay should be kept personal as it was coming from a student, or more professional and business-like, effectively giving the reader what the essay is about.

[rsegrest]

Best place to look is at this link:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...nt.aspx?id=440

It has tips and videos etc from past winners. Another good place to go is the MOE website. I believe they even posted their essays and they won Chairmans at Championship in 2008.

http://www.moe365.org/

Good luck!

[popnbrown]

I would say a mixture. Because you want to show the judges how your "team" has accomplished those objectives, but also show them how "your" team has done this.

What I mean by that is, Team Alchemy is an object, sure, and when you talk about what it has accomplished that's mostly objective. However, this team is run by you, your fellow student colleagues, and your mentors. There are many teams out there, that have Chairman's essays that have personal stories of overcoming obstacles and so on.

So in conclusion, don't worry about what tense or perspective it is in, all you need to make sure is that the message that you want your reader to get (essentially that you are accomplishing or striving towards those objectives) is told in that essay.

Hope that helps!

--Sravan

[liljesse2014]

I would agree to do the mixture. Also besides MOE try the Techno Ticks 236 they have won 6 times at the CT Regional and won at Championship in 2009.

http://sites.google.com/a/team236.or...airman-s-award

[Thee Alchemyst]

@ rsegrest: I went through MOE's works, and surprisingly, that helps quite a bit, especially seeing the summary and what they did. That outline is definitely going to lend us a hand. Thank you very much. ^_^

@ Popnbrown: Actually, it does help. Thanks a bunch. I'll keep that in mind as we finish not only the work, but the editing as well. I'll try to incorporate that as we also try to use MOE's ideas that they have used.

@ liljesse2014: Oh, you're from GUS! We adore you guys! Yeah, thanks as well for finding the Techno Ticks' stuff. I remember watching them at the kickoff video. Hopefully we'll be able to meet them at this year's regional.