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Unread 31-08-2010, 16:22
FRC4ME FRC4ME is offline
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Re: Doing FIRST in College

Hmm...I am a second-year college student mentoring my local FRC team, so I suppose I should add my experiences from last year (my freshman year and first with this team).

First, I will note that yes, I ended up spending way too much time doing FRC things during my second semester. I wanted nothing more than to see my team succeed, so I worked as hard as possible toward that end. And yes, my grades during that semester were lower than they should have been. It's hard for me to completely blame FIRST for this, however; the ultimate reality is, despite my heavy involvement with FRC, I had the time to do my homework, and I had the time to go to class, but I didn't aways use that time appropriately. I was not mature enough to handle the time management necessary to do FRC and college at the same time.

Second, I had (and still have) difficulty understanding my role on the team as a mentor rather than a student. I'm afraid that last year I did a bit too much of the engineering myself, because I wanted the team to do well, and in the stress of college + build season I temporarily forgot that FIRST isn't about the robots, but about the students (high school, that is). I also tried to take control of too many things at once; being very excited about my new opportunity for leadership I wanted to lead everything, which didn't go over well with the experienced professional mentors on the team who have been leading for years.

On the other hand, mentoring the team last year was still an amazing experience. The students and I developed an amazing sense of community and friendship - almost family. I received several compliments from adult mentors that I was one of the greatest kinds of mentors the students could have, being so close to them in age and experience. I myself continued to learn about engineering and gain valuable technical skills; the team even allowed me and other college students to use the lab during the off-season to explore other engineering projects. It was an amazing experience - what I have come to know and love from FIRST.

So, now starting my second year in college and with the team, I'm in a position where I can give a small bit of advice about last year, and I need a lot of advice for the years ahead. I'm glad this thread exists, as it has inspired me to think about myself, my college career, and how FIRST can best continue to benefit me. As others have said, the FIRST community is very generous, and as us recently-graduated students got so much out of the program, we immediately want to start giving back to it. But the reality is, college students are still growing. We are still gaining from the world around us, and we are not yet ready to give back as much. Just as a second grade student cannot teach first grade, a college freshman cannot mentor an FRC team in the same sense as a professional.

That is not to say I'm convinced we don't have a place on FRC teams at all. Seeing as last year had some difficulties but also some strong points for me, I'm going to remain involved and give this year another chance. But I am certainly changing my perspective a bit. I'm joining the solar car team at my school, getting more involved in my academic studies, and making sure I get my priorities right this time: academics, work, and extracurricular activities at school will dominate my schedule, then FRC will fill in the gaps. And I'm definitely going to talk with some of the senior mentors on my team about my role and how I can better fit in.
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