Girls,Why did you join FIRST???

[tiffany34990]

So since there is a discussion talking about how to reach out to girls and get their participation. I would like to throw out to the girls why did we join FIRST?? perhaps this can help with reaching out to other girls if we know why others females have joined... so start telling your story!! and why have you stayed??? what is the great things about FIRST do you see??? What have you gotten out of it??

so here's mine:

I've always loved building thing with legos growing up with my older brother. i give him a lot of credit for my participation in FIRST. if he didn't find out about S.P.A.M. as a freshman i wouldn't have known about it as a 7th grader. I went to many meeting as a middle schooler. I did a few things for the team's robot. S.P.A.M. was very small at the time and those students on the team didn't mind teaching me things. finally i entered high school and officially joined the team and well FIRST has changed my life for the better. i increased my interest in fabrication of parts and designing and soon began to actually make them on the mill and lathe. i kept coming back because of the knowledge i was gaining and of course the fun. the mentors I've known now for six years have made a positive impact always encouraging me as a female. my first competition changed my life. it was truly amazing to see it. and now I'm forever hooked and want to mentor when i go off to college. in addition, working with the RCU, I've found another area i want to have participation in. i really do want to see more girls in FIRST and working with the RCU and GirlsFIRST. I've been apart of the FIRST community for 6 years now and it's changed and will continue to change for the better. working also with FLL has made my life even better. i love to see those little kids faces light up when something we can do really fast work. FIRST is just really great and I'm truly glad I've had the opportunity to join.


I'm sorry if there is a similar thread.i search but didn't find what i wanted. i would like really like new thoughts and stories..the RCU would really appreciate feedback.

PM please if you want to get more information about the RCU and be added to the mailing list.

['lil Gach]

I joined FIRST because of my brother. When I was in eight grade I went to the competition at Disney and had a blast. I loved seeing how the robots worked and how the game was played. I have gone to my brothers competitions before that but I never knew it could be so much fun. So after going to my brothers competitions I decided that I was going to go ahead and give the program a try. Ever since the FIRST has been a big part of my life. I think that any person that comes and joins FIRST would have an experience that not a lot of people can get.

Tiffany

[Katie Reynolds]

My best friend told me she'd break my (other) arm, if I didn't join the team. I never found out how serious she was, 'cause I went to the next meeting after that.

Seriously, though, her big sister (who was on the team) used to babysit for my family... and I remember when I was in 5th grade, she came over to babysit and was so excited because they "named the robot TOBOR! Which is 'robot' spelled backwards!" I was intrigued then, and started going to meetings the summer before my freshman year. I was hooked from the beginning.

[A. Leese]

I joined FIRST originally because my father was the team's faculty advisor. I would go with him to meetings and events because it meant more time spent with my Dad. That and, I'll admit, I had a bit of a crush on the team's human player (despite the fact he was a good five years older..haha).

Once I entered high school, I really didn't want to stay active in FIRST. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, I just didn't think I would have the time (I was also on quiz bowl and in the band). One of my best friends encouraged me to stay active and I listened. Bryce, thank you for that (one again)!

FIRST really changed thigns for me. I joined SPAM at the very beginning, so I saw the team grow from about ten students to the huge size it's now achieved. All of the engineers who have come and gone (and people like Dillard and Warren who are too insane to leave) taught me so much. I saw first-hand how much fun engineering and math can be. I knew I loved science (my dad's a bio/chem teacher), but had no clue that I could be good at math and technology! And that anyone would ever let a girl wire a robot!!

I worked on all sorts of PR sort of things my Fresh/Soph year of high school than transitioned more into the technical side the next two years.

These last two years I didn't work with a team (no teams within two hours that would allow college students to help out) but helped out at the LA and Finger Lakes Regionals and the Championship. Next year I'm working to start a team at my new school (Cal Poly Pomona) which is going to bring up all sort of challenges.

I'm very lucky to come from a rather organized team. I know I'll be counting on my mentors back at my home team for all sorts of advice along the way.

- Angela

PS
To Warren/Dillard/Eric/Bill/Mrs. Cary: Thank you for all of your hard work, especially during those difficult first years (remember 2000, when we had to move shop three times in six weeks??). I owe you all so much!

[melitami]

Because it sounded cool and a bunch of my friends wanted to do it too.

Honestly, our physics teacher my junior year of high school asked who wanted to build a robot, since FIRST was trying to get more teams in the Richmond, VA area (this was the first season there was a regional at VCU), and a bunch of us agreed and got into it, not realizing what we were getting into. Thus team 422 was born And I've had the FIRST bug ever since.

[karinka13]

I don't really have an inspiring story or anything. It was more like..

Meredith: Karen! I know you from the play! Join robotics!
Me: *while getting pushed and shoved from every direction as people run towards the CSC table, which is giving out candy* umm...when are the meetings? *note over committed stressed voice*
Meredith: Whenever you can come
Me: So....if I can't some, I don't have to?
Meredith: Right.
Me: Ok. Sign me up.

Fortunately, I did go to a view meetings and realized that I loved FIRST.

[Beth Sweet]

Ok fine, I'll be the honest one and admit why I joined: there was a seriously cute guy in it.

The more important thing is why I stayed. I caught the FIRST bug and even the doctors couldn't cure it. And, to tell y'all the truth, I'm still not over it. It's fun, it's great, and it's like the real world but the real world in which people are actually courteous and helpful. I'd like it to stay this way as long as I can.

[Alaina]

I joined because my boyfriend (more like ex-boyfriend ) told me to...
I stayed because of the people I got to work with....

[emnasson303]

i got completely hooked on FIRST in 4th grade .. my brother was a freshman and had joined the team, so we (my family and i.. ) had been to a couple of the meetings during build, and we went to the jersey regional. by the end of saturday i had no voice. the next year i was already volunteering at the regional, and i've stayed involved ever since .. even though i'm in 8th grade, and my brother isn't in high school anymore i guess the main reason i stayed is because the people are so awesome

[shyra1353]

Curiosity. And then I went to competition and fell in love. Now it is a part of me that I can't get away from.

My friend was on the team the year before and I saw pictures and it looked cool. Plus she got to miss school for competition. Also, my brother would tell me when I was younger (like 7 or 8) that girls can't be engineers (which was also the reason why I never touched Meccano or anything like that) and I had to prove him wrong. I think I've done a good job with that.

But curiosity was the main reason. And boy am I glad.

[jessjank.]

I remember as a Girl Scout in elementary school I went to a lock-in at the high school's gym, of which one half was devoted to Cybersonics' mock playing field and game equipment. I had always loved Lego's and mechanical things of sorts, so when I was told what all the equipment was for I was terribly interested and was very curious as to what it was all about. Unfortunately, I never heard anything else about the team for a few years after that.

In middle school, though, our technology teacher was the brother of 103's founder and adviser and always told amazing stories about the team, FIRST, and robotics in general. Having remembered seeing some of the things when I was younger and having cultivated further interest in the whole program, I was very excited when I was given the opportunity in eighth grade (2001 season) to visit the Philadelphia Alliance Regional. I never expected to be drawn in so quickly, but the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm at the event were just incredible and it truly seemed like something I wanted to become a part of.

When I entered 9th grade, I quickly grabbed a team application from the extracurricular fair the school had held that year. The strange thing was, though, that I almost ended up not joining because I had already gotten myself involved with a number of other activities by that time and when I had definitely decided to join I had missed the application deadline, but thankfully was still accepted. While I had originally intended to join the team's manufacturing department, I ended up finding my place in Communications/PR/Marketing. Needless to say, I am indescribably glad and grateful that Cybersonics and FIRST became part of my life.

[katiyeh07]

My grandfather was an engineer on the team and told us to come see the robot at the highschool when i was in 2nd grade. We went to a few competitions. Now I've been with FIRST for 8 years, and my grandfather is still on the team too. It's in my blood I guess you could say

[StephLee]

A mentor realized we had only one girl(who wound up not sticking around anyway), and started asking around at school for any freshman girls interested in technology. My name came up, and he contacted me. It sounded cool, and I wasn't really doing anything over the winter, so I went to a meeting. It almost scared me away, so I brought a friend the next time. She and I are the only girls on the team right now. I love it because I've always liked building things(even though no one in my family seemed to know that until I joined the team), and I love learning more about it. Plus, I love hanging out with the team; they're probably my favorite group of friends now.

[brandy836]

My Engineering Tech teacher is the lead mentor for our FIRST team, so he encouraged the 3 girls in my class to get involved. He said that the team was lacking in girls (they had only 3 at the time) and that it would be fun because there was all sorts of stuff to be done and (lots of guys!). After seeing a promo tape I decided to join the team because I wanted to go on the trips. For 2005, the girls on the team were still seriously out numbered (6-35), but next year we plan on getting more girls involved.

[Lisa Perez]

The year I joined was the first year Brother Rice (the all-boys school next door) integrated Marian students into the program. They had been working to get the girls on the team since their rookie year, so when their school finally let them, the guys were definitely into pitching the idea of robotics out to the girls.

One of those guys happened to be one of my friends from Model UN. He was so enthused about the whole OCCRA/FIRST experience (which seemed to fit my avid interest in math, science, and business) that I decided to keep an ear open for the announcements on the PA system.

.. And so it came to be. I joined 573 for the 2002 OCCRA season, and fell completely in love with everything - the building, being on pit crew, talking to other teams, etc.