Collegiate FIRST competition

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

FIRST is about inspiring students to pursue science and engineering as a career.

This is correct, the main goal of FIRST is to inspire students.

College students I believe fit that criteria. I think where your and my opinion is different is that once you hit college and choose a major your life isn't set in stone. I know tons of people who become engineers (aka earn a degree) who are not cut out to be one and shift gears way after their undergrad days. I also know quite a few people who became engineers long after they earned their first bachelor's degree. Who's to say you can't change your mind sometime down the road.

Originally Posted by Chris is me

The reason I react so strongly against this, though, is because I can't exactly see a way that this wouldn't take funding away from FRC teams. Colleges in FRC who want to do this would have to come up with thousands more dollars, so I bet more than a few would go "well we don't need to support that OTHER FIRST thing anymore". Any corporate money going to this would probably be better spent on new and sustainable FRC teams, which have a much higher "inspiration quotient" per team than any college team.

This is a legitimate concern, but cmon, this by no means is insurmountable. There would definitely be a correct way to do this versus just going out and gobbling up funding.

Keep in mind though, the amount of colleges that are involved with FRC versus the amount of colleges not involved with FRC are not even remotely comparable (meaning tons of colleges are not involved with FIRST). The only issues you would run into would be with colleges who already directly support FRC teams (meaning give money to a team), which is small potatoes compared to the entire college landscape.

Theres going to be challenges absolutely, but I don't see why a collegiate FRC program shouldn't exist. I think it very readily could be the answer to a lot of the concerns/issues involved with college mentors.

-Brando