So I have a project coming up. It’s a speech! WOO! Okay. Kidding aside, the topic I am choosing for this informative speech is FIRST Robotics. I have to do research and what-have-you. Aside from obviously perusing usfirst.org, I wanted to get some feedback from former and current FIRST competitors and affiliates.
The point of this thread is: How has FIRST changed you? Or better put, what impact does it have on you? Mentors, students, judges! Any input is appreciated! My goal is to have the best speech in the class and have it all about FIRST!
As a precaution, anything read on this thread may be subject to being credited in a speech, and therefore I would have to reference you. Names are good.
Ive never really been able to describe FIRST. I was the girl that sat by myself in the back… When I joined a FRC team though, it completely opened me up. You can ask anyone that really knows me. Many times I have thought about how FIRST has changed me but the most important thing, to me, is the people that I have met. Some of my best friends are from other teams either on the other side of the state or in another country (Canada<3). I met Dean Kamen, and got very interested in how he inspired me. After that, I realized he was my role model. I wanted to help others that are younger than me. I started working with a local Lego League, and I met the greatest kids. FIRST has opened up infinite options for my future not only because of my knowledge that I recieved, but also because of the people that came into my life and acctually want the best future for me…
Now I wannna write a paper. Lol.
Imagine, if you will, a 70,000-seat arena packed with screaming fans. Cheerleaders and mascots roam through the crowd. On the field, the spectacle of competition is on full display. And at halftime, the Black Eyed Peas take the stage and perform.
Now imagine that this is not the Super Bowl, nor any professional sporting event. These are high schoolers, and the athletes on the field are robots.
This is not an episode of The Twilight Zone. This is FIRST.
You can read the rest of his article here. It’s one of the better one’s I’ve seen.
Well, on a humorous level I have become conversant with my tools, my teams speak in entirely proprietary made up terms that I cooked up, and I now never go anywhere without my slide on side shields.
On the serious side of things, I would say that robotics (FIRST, Lego, Vex) has saved my high school experience no doubt. Without the robotics programs my school offers I am not sure what high school would be for me, but I know that it would not be as great as it is right now. I was hanging out with a certain group of people who were not the best people, and things started to change for the better starting with an accidental run-in with my school’s robotics team. I had gone to the Chem Lab to try and create a battery that fed back into itself, allowing more energy to come from one power source. (Never got anywhere past the theoretical stages, as I had no real knowledge of the innards of batteries or a deep understanding of electricity) But anyway, I walked in, and down this corridor was the physics lab, where I saw one of my classmates participating in Robotics. I went over there, and pretty much from that day forward I was at every robotics meeting helping out, working on robots, and guiding the younger folks towards productivity. It really saved me, and completely altered my life path. Before then I was planning on going to college just to get a fall-back degree so that if being a rock star didnt work out I could do something to stave off homelessness. But working with robots changed all that. I realized that I loved science the way I loved music. Now I am planning on studying Electrical Engineering, and I will probably double major at the very least. It all goes back to robotics.
According to the mentors, both of FIRST as well as Small (Lego, Vex) and Academy (my school has a 7th and 8th grade academy) robotics, I have a special way of helping younger members along. I do my best to bring the engineer in all of us out to help show people that 99% of the battle (and fun) is diving into the challenge head first and tackling the problems however each of us understands them. I also help the younger folk express their ideas. While it is not always appropriate to refer to allen wrenches as “the spinny spinny turny turny twisty thing that turns,” at least I got the point across. The same goes for designing pieces of the robot. I know very well the feeling of not being able to explain what your idea for something is. My way around it is to make up words, use gestures, and whatever else is necessary to get the concept across. Thats what I want those kids to be able to do. I may look like a complete fool in the process, but Im okay with that.
That one day when I stepped into the Chemistry Lab was the day where my life’s path took a different course, one that I will never regret as long as I live.
I have started to invent things that i probably would have never started to do. I look up to dean kamen, not any body else, he is my role model and my inspiration. FIRST beneffit me so greatly i want to pursue a career in mechanical Engineering or start my own company like DEKA.
Perhaps, it has made me pursue higher than I would have without it. I am not really sure how I would have ended up my Senior year without FIRST. I would probably still be on football (actually, since season’s over, not exactly). I probably would have ended up taking “blow off” classes instead. May be, I would not even think about college. Who knows? It allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and allow me to do things I would have never have done. I am now confident in public speaking and am able to take criticism. It solidified my career goal. It really showed me how to work in a team, being able to give and take and doing the best in my area.
I can also say that it probably inflated my already big ego, but I have learned so much within those 3 years. Confidence is a good thing.
Haha I feel obligated to post on this.
I originally checked out the team because there was a guy I liked and he WOULD NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT.
I came to one meeting and felt instantly welcome. No one cared that I was madame queen nerd; heck, that made them even more excited!
My grades were horrid when I started, but thanks to the mentors and other students, I’m now a straight-A student.
Now I’m head of a sub-team, and I MAKE SURE I do NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT FIRST.
You never know who’ll get dragged in.
kidding aside…l I was a semi normal kid with interests in building stuff but I lacked the skills and focus to really do stuff and do it well. I joined my school’s FIRST team a year after building a battlebot and I learned everything from how to properly use tools, to how to overcome design challenges and how to work better in groups versus working on something alone. Only downside to FIRST, (at least for me) is my grades tend to suffer during the FIRST season because I devote so much time to it.
FIRST inspired me to become an engineer, developed my leadership potential, and gave me the self-confidence to succeed as both an engineer and a leader.
Personally, FIRST gave me a purpose beyond videogames and homework. It has taught and is teaching me about how to work as a team member. Most of all, The feeling I get from being part of a worldwide phenomenon that inspires teens to greater heights is truly exhilarating.
As a school, FIRST is awesome. Our FRC team is senior to our fledgling football team, we have our own rally at the end of build season, and we are treated as a varsity sports team by the school (no P.E. credits, unfortunately). We even received varsity letters last year.
Even as a second-year team? Mad props. We work every day to gain more recognition in our school. We go to a school for government and international policy, so we compete for exposure against debate team and Model UN over football and basketball.
Since I took the time to branch a little off-topic, I’ll get back on with a quote from my blog:
“There comes a time in everyone’s life when an unstoppable dream meets an immovable memory. I’ve never wanted to finish at the top of my class and go to Princeton. I’ve never wanted to star in a movie, or play in the NFL. I never used to want anything. Now, the whole team knows what they want: they want to put the best possible robot they can piece together in six weeks on the field. They want to stay six days a week, nights and weekends, after school, in the middle of huge assignments and brutal exams, in the rain, the cold, and the thought of snow (it’s central Virginia, after all), even when the intimidation of the skeletons in our closet and the shadows of the teams that stand before us try to scare us away from some friendly Cooperitition.”
I used to wander life making immature, snide remarks at everyone who I thought was lesser than me. turns out, I was the lesser person. I needed to work hard to get something that i wanted for a change. I needed to be a part of something unlike anything most people have ever done. When people my senior turned me on to robotics, no one has been able to find my off switch. I’m there every day, and on the very rare occasions I’m absent, I call in, text, email, send pictures of ideas. I can’t get it out of my head, and I don’t want it to leave.
FIRST has given me the chance to organize efforts in which we have donated nearly 7,000 items to the local Ronald McDonald House.
FIRST has given my students thousands of dollars in scholarships, and professional connections that have led to employment.
FIRST has given me relationships with former students that send me cards on Father’s Day.
FIRST has taken away my wife’s husband and my children’s father (but it gives him back after a while).
FIRST has given me headaches, heartaches, heartburn, sleepless nights, scars, and it’s the hardest fun I’ve ever had.
FIRST hasn’t just changed me, it completely made me over. Growing up I was always interested in a career that would help people but could never decide what I wanted to do.
I could go into the long story of how it all happened and message me if you would like it. To jump right to the point. FIRST has changed my overall goal in life. If I can inspire just one person to be better or to go into STEM or pursue their dreams I will have made an impact on the world. That’s what I aspire to do because of FIRST.
