Help Getting Robotics to become a Varsity Sport

[Jon Stratis]

There are a few key items:
- First, get support from the school administration. Invite them out to the build space and the competitions. Ask them to let you do a short presentation at a board meeting (with the robot) to tell them what the team is all about. Don't talk about varsity at first - let them get to know your team and support the program before you start asking for things.
- Once you have their support, let them know how much work is going into the program. How much time do students spend doing team activities? Compare that to various sports programs at your school... We've found it's very comparable.
- After you've been around for a few years, you can bring back alumni (or just talk about them) who went into engineering and/or got scholarships/internships because of your program.
- Talk to them about the teams successes. Were you featured on the news at any point? Did you win a regional competition? What awards have you won over all?

The key is to get the administrators on your side. Get them to see that the team goes through everything a varsity sports team goes through - funding issues, recruitment, practice, competition, awards, scholarships and college placement. Eventually they'll come to understand that a varsity sport doesn't have to involve athletics.