Girls,Why did you join FIRST???

[Marisa Russo]

Although I learned about FIRST too late in life to actually compete on a team, I have to admit that like many of you - I joined by accident. Since work (DeVry) was the way I found out about FIRST, in the beginning it was more of a "snmart org to be involved with" than the right org to give my time to.

At his point, I identify with Beth - the bug has got me - hook, line and sinker! Not only am I continually impressed by the students, mentors, educators, parents and everyone else involved with FIRST, but I'm excited by the possibilities that the future holds.

Since I've always been what you could call a "traditional" girl (it didn't matter that my natural intelligences for science were above an beyond the rest of of my strengths...I was still guided toward the humanities instead of engineering) - it inspires me to meet and encourage so many young ladies (like those of you here - and then some) with exceptional engineering (and problem solving) prowess.

It would be great to start the FIRST Femmes (or something like that)... Our purpose would be to encourage young girls with potential to get involved. The disproportionate amount of males to females in engineering is sad - I'm the perfect example of someone with a lot of potential that went on to a more traditional "girl" field bc I though I was "supposed" to. grrrrrr...

I'm currently 10 years out of high school, and what I care most about now is helping more and more young women understand that sky's the limits. As the largest minority group in the world, women need to band together to help eachother learn, grow and excel. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who wants to jump on the soapbox with me to actually do something tangible.

Who says girls can't be cute, fun AND SMART?!?

[Lisa Rodriguez]

I joined because my brother (ogre) did it and it looked fun, I'd been watching for 3 years, and I wanted to join. I stayed because my brother left (haha). I was able to be myself, learn real things and not have it matter that I was a girl or not. My team loves anyone who wants to learn. I'm hooked, between the program and the people, you can't even kick me out.

[angelc24]

In fourth grade, I was jealous because my math teacher picked one of my friends to be on our elementary school's Lego team. So In 5th grade i joined the Lego team and had a kinda horrible experience. I didn't really do anything. When I got to the Middle School I was convinced by a teacher to give it another shot and I loved it. I've been hooked ever since and as a Freshmen I am one of the few people on the team that has been involved in FIRST for some way or another for 5 years.

[Julia Magoolia]

Originally Posted by Marisa Russo

It would be great to start the FIRST Femmes (or something like that)... Our purpose would be to encourage young girls with potential to get involved. The disproportionate amount of males to females in engineering is sad - I'm the perfect example of someone with a lot of potential that went on to a more traditional "girl" field bc I though I was "supposed" to. grrrrrr...

If you're looking for a FIRST organization centered around girls... You'd probably be interested in the RCU (Robot Chicks Union)! That's part of the focus of the RCU... to get more girls involved in FIRST, engineering, technology, etc.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Hm, well, Tom sent me over from the guys starting in FIRST thread...funny how some us get lost

Essentially I started becuase I heard about it from the girl I swam with freshman year. I needed a change, becuase I had a thirst for practical science that school science classes were barely providing me becuase I was above that level in interest. The choice to join was a difficult one. I was very very intimidated at first due to my lack of lab experience, and since I was doing a million and one things at once, decided to stick to a more laid back aspect.

However, once I realized what I'd gotten myself into, laid back was no longer a priority. Involvement was a priority. I am now with a group of friends who can smile when I rant about Science Fair and Robotics Nationals simultaneously and who help me see what education really means in this crazy world.

- Genia

[JacquelineR]

I had always loved playing with legos as a kid, so when my elementary school was trying to start up FLL teams, I joined an all-girls lego league team in 5th grade. We stayed together all through middle school, and I found that I loved working on the lego robot and programming it to accomplish all of the challenging tasks.

When I was trying to figure out what high school to go to, one of my requirements was that it had a robotics team. I had been to see a few of the "big kid robotics" competitions, and knew that I wanted to do it when I was in high school. At our club fair day I went to the robotics booth, and they all immediately started encouraging me to join once they found out that I was a girl interested in robotics. And I've been a programmer on our team ever since!

[tiffany34990]

Originally Posted by Julia Magoolia

If you're looking for a FIRST organization centered around girls... You'd probably be interested in the RCU (Robot Chicks Union)! That's part of the focus of the RCU... to get more girls involved in FIRST, engineering, technology, etc.

We are improving things and we need girls to be involved. Please sign up. We have a few things being worked on like chats about girl participation, how to get them involved and roles on the team and various other topics.