Hi, I am the outreach mentor coordinator of FRC1772. I would like to know if the new questions of Deans List Award will be unfavourable to outreach students that does not work with robot, neither engineering.
“4. Describe the student’s experience in and mastery of areas of STEM. This could include, but is not limited to, skills in engineering, software, CAD, fabrication, etc. Please provide examples.”
Will this question recuse imdirectly the nomination of Deans List Finalists that does not have background of Engineering in the team?
What approach you would take for writing the short answers for an outreach students without saying “this student does not have STEM background because he/her is the +A of STEAM”? Would it be acceptable to write about their role in promoting STEM education in events, for example?
Based on the questions, (the next one asks about non-tech aspects like fundraising, etc), I would surmise that FIRST is looking for “well rounded” students. So have nothing technical to talk about could indeed be an issue. Do they have technical skills in their artistic areas (computer graphics, web development, photography, something like that) you could talk about?
I would approach it by focusing on the experience that they’ve had where they tried traditional STEM areas, how they learned foundational knowledge, but realized their interests and passion lie elsewhere.
In my mind saying “I’m not interested in STEM because I can’t do it” or “because I’m a [demographic]” is what FIRST is trying to eliminate. Saying “I tried it, I know I can do it, but I didn’t care for it it and enjoy doing something else” is perfectly fine and shows experience growing and developing as a person.
