Hello, I am at reccently graduated senior, and I want to stay involved with community, but really not sure what’s the best option for me.
I know the city where I am going to college has a local team but I don’t know if I will have time to help out as a mentor, much less if I am even qualified to do so. I thought volunteering at events would be fun, but it doesn’t seem like there is any local regionals, so that idea went pretty quickly out the window.
Is there any other options available to me?
I would recommend mentoring a team virtually, but usually it’s recommended for alumni take at least a year off. I would recommend volunteering or just taking a break. FRC will still be here later. Take collage as a new journey to focus on 
From what I’ve heard around the forum the best recommendation is to focus on college level teams for different competitions and take a break from FRC. If you have an FRC itch you can volunteer at local competitions. I am still at high school student so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
I know my college has a VEXU team that I’m going to check out.
The main reason I waant to stay ivolved with FRC though is because my younger brother just joined my old team and want to kinda stay in the community so I can talk to him about it and what not.
A few thoughts:
Also, do you care to share where you will be geographically? Some folks here might have specific suggestions for you.
Do you mind sharing what college you are going to?
Run, go do something else.
FRCFIRST Robotics Competition will, probably, still be there when you graduate.
I’m with Andrew.
If you want to scratch the itch, consider a Spring Break trip somewhere once FIRST releases the event schedule? Seeing other parts of the country was a highlight for me back in the day. Still is!
This is the way.
Seriously, OP, focus on school. Go do other things. Meet people that didn’t do FIRST stuff. Go figure out life for a bit. It’ll be here when you get back and you’ll be better for it and so will the program.
I have volunteered at two events outside of the District I am located in. Each time, I saw people/teams doing things differently from how it is done where I normally compete/volunteer. They were good learning experiences and I am looking forward to doing it more.
As someone who has tried to stay involved with the FIRST community in their first year of college, I can say that I didn’t feel like it took away from my college experience too much, but there is definitely a balance that needs to be maintained.
My involvement included helping out a team about 45 minutes away from my university a couple of times during the season. I mainly helped out with programming, as they had just purchased swerve, and were looking for help with simple autos that they could run. I was able to do this because I had a car, and wasn’t involved in too many orgs or clubs.
My university also has an active FIRST alumni club, which volunteered at events. The club used funds from the school to pay for hotels and transportation to and from events, as well as connected me to people who were also passionate about FIRST.
I agree with the overall sentiment of the thread however, college is an important time to learn about yourself, and spend time meeting new people. My advice would be: don’t sacrifice your social or educational life for FIRST while in college. If mentoring a team or volunteering would mean canceling plans or missing class, then it’s probably not a good idea.
Seconding the suggestion for FLL or FTC - they’re both also a much lower time commitment than FRC, and if you’re worried about whether you’re “qualified” to mentor, working with younger students might be a good fit and help you build up your coaching skills and confidence. And working with younger students helps you avoid the awkwardness of “mentoring” people who are the same age and have just about the same level of experience as you.
I am a coach and a parent of a FIRST alum. I will definitely recommend concentrating on school and school-related activities. There is a whole world out there waiting for you. Go explore!
However, if you really want to remain part of the FIRST community, then this and other forums will probably be your best bet. It will keep you up to date on the big topics. If you want to remain as part of the community of your former team or the team that will be close to you, ask to stay/get on their email list or on whatever their team communication platform is. You can be part of the conversation and keep up to date with the team that way.
Focus on school for at least your first year, until you get your bearings. Volunteer at events on weekends if you can, across all programs. Don’t mentor unless you know you can make the time commitment, and importantly do it to be a mentor that wants to teach, not to have another season of building a robot.
+1 for checking out collegiate clubs and competitions. I graduated HS in 2022 and honestly, you should focus on college/a new chapter of your life. If you are still interested in just checking in on what’s happening, I still read CD and am involved in a few servers, but I do not mentor any teams.
I still visit my old team every once in a while to see what’s happening but I definitely recommend exploring other interests. I’m currently involved with VEX U (and was considering dropping out because of the VEX/IFI controversy but ultimately stayed) and a few other clubs. There are other competitions out there as well such as Formula SAE, Baja SAE, (check out all the SAE competitions), NASA Lunabotics, etc. Check out what your college has or maybe even start a new club at your college.
Some of the alumni on a previous team would work with the team in the first week after Kickoff because school did not start until the 3rd week of January. We typically had no contact with them during the rest of the build/competition seasons.
There were also alumni from other nearby teams that would return during spring break to visit family and volunteer at an event.
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