FIRST: the incredible community

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

What other program puts these role models on a first name basis with teenagers?

I love it.

[FourPenguins]

This reminds me of a career project I had to do for school. We had to find someone in our desired field to interview about his or her career. For most kids, finding a robotic engineer to interview is a difficult task, but not for a FIRSTer.
My friend Mike talked to one of our team mentors, and I got in touch with Matt DiCicco, one of MORT's founding members, who's currently working at NASA's JPL and mentoring team IForgettheNumber.
One of the things he told me was how important it is to build a network of individuals in the industry to help you out when you need a contact about employment or other help later in life. In FIRST, there's a massive network of people like these two who you can tap as resources in the industry. There aren't many aspiring engineers who can email someone on NASA's rover project if they have some questions. It's one of the unique priviledges of FIRST.

[Andrew Blair]

Andy, you bring up a very interesting point. I recently attended an ASM camp in Cleveland, and, because it was a sponsored thing, and at Materials park, there were alot of big-time CEO's, presidents, etc., especially at our graduation. Talking to people there, I was reminded of FIRST concerning the ranks of the people in attendance, but I was surprised at the sort of stigma surrounding us. We still were talked to, and heard some stories, but with the exception of our mentors, we were talked down to and entertained rather than conversed.

This was a bit of a shock to me, because at regionals, and especially Championships, anyone and everyone was not only accessable, but open. In one day, I talked to not only you Andy, but several other team mentors, college students, engineers, and a the guy heading the GM tent. Not only talked to him, but learned he was an old mentor of 67, that he got them their Hummer, and gave my friend his card!

The FIRST community has, as you said, made themselves available, but also extremely candid. In our little world, anyone is game, and everyone is friendly. FIRST is a sort of universal common ground, where anyone can converse who's involved or interested. The results are always exciting.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Andy, you bring up a very interesting point. I recently attended an ASM camp in Cleveland, and, because it was a sponsored thing, and at Materials park, there were alot of big-time CEO's, presidents, etc., especially at our graduation. Talking to people there, I was reminded of FIRST concerning the ranks of the people in attendance, but I was surprised at the sort of stigma surrounding us. We still were talked to, and heard some stories, but with the exception of our mentors, we were talked down to and entertained rather than conversed.

This was a bit of a shock to me, because at regionals, and especially Championships, anyone and everyone was not only accessable, but open. In one day, I talked to not only you Andy, but several other team mentors, college students, engineers, and a the guy heading the GM tent. Not only talked to him, but learned he was an old mentor of 67, that he got them their Hummer, and gave my friend his card!

The FIRST community has, as you said, made themselves available, but also extremely candid. In our little world, anyone is game, and everyone is friendly. FIRST is a sort of universal common ground, where anyone can converse who's involved or interested. The results are always exciting.

When your team comes to an FRC event, you are not just some kid hoping for a glimpse of your hero. You're a competitor, with experience behind you and some impressive stuff of your own to show. It's only natural that Dave, Woody, Dean, and all the mentors you meet are going to be open to talking with you. Their interests are not simply benevolent, but also selfish. They give an enormous amount, and they get something back, too.

It can make you feel good to give some time to people who need help; however, that feeling is weak compared with some others I've experienced. Every teacher knows an even better feeling: seeing the light come on in a student's eyes in the magic instant of a new insight.

But there is a better feeling still. It happens when someone who has learned from you returns the favor by independently finding something new, and then sharing it. This is the coolest reward you can get, better than wealth, praise, fame, or anything else. Stay with FIRST for a little while and you'll see it for yourself.

[Alex Cormier]

Firstly ill start off saying that all of the previous posts have been excellent and they all prove Andy's point.

I too like how open the FIRST community is on the appreciation of the higher knowledge level of these "FIRST idols" like; Andy Baker, Paul C, Raul, Karthik and many others. I have had a few chances to talk to Andy Baker about robotics and other things in general. It has always been a great conversation. The first time i was told that i would be able to meet him, i was excited and couldn't wait. The first time was when Mr. Baker and Mr. Koors visited Rochester for the R3 competition. I had a great time and the knowledge level of the two of them is phenomenal. I also found myself thinking, what would i say to start off the conversation and what's some topics would spark an intelligent conversation with the two of them.

I remember one other thing from R3, as we were in the pits fixing the robot as usual, these two little kids came up to Greg N. and asked for his autograph, i remember this solely because he told me shortly afterwords that he was amazed at the kids wanted his autograph and all. As i saw him talking to the kids, they were very excited and amazed at what the robot did and how well it looked, also Greg was basically melting because he was so happy to make a kids day. I too have had that feeling to me recently and it feels great. Gets me thinking possibly being a teacher later in life.

One other thing i love is how the "Top FIRSTers"; Dean, Woodie and such come up to others like M. Krass and start a conversation just like any other person would do. It would be an amazing feeling to have them choose to talk to you other then the other hundereds of people and it's a great feeling.

[GaryVoshol]

I may have posted this story after Atlanta last year, but I don't remember. Woodie Flowers' "minder" was Susan Lawrence - she got to be the "bad guy" who interrupted conversations, pushed him along, etc. to get him where he had to be on time. Woodie had spoken to several of our team members on Friday, and Devin was just ecstatic, going on and on about how he was never going to wash the hand that shook Woodie's.

Early Saturday morning I had cause to find Susan to ask her about a problem, and of course she was near Woodie. He was talking to someone, so I talked to Susan. After his conversation was finished, I mentioned how much our team members appreciated their conversation the day before, and mentioned the "never wash" comment. Woodie was genuinely confounded why he got placed on such a pedestal - but if kids had to have a role model and hero, it certainly was better than many other choices they could have made.

Later I got to rib Devin of how I got to shake Woodie's hand on Einstein.

[JudyVandy]

I'll never forget...

..the look on the faces of the two kids who had a few minutes of conversation with Dave Lavery at the 'Iron Fever' expo in York, PA.

...the excitement of the mom whose two sons had just talked to Dean about their experiences with our team and their plans for the future.

...the young engineer who credits FIRST with changing his life.

And this is only a very small part of it all. The Inspiration is definitely happening!