The Alumni Situation

FIRST General Forum
1

Posted by Erin.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Other on team #1, The Juggernauts, from OTC-NE and 3-Dimensional Services.

Posted on 10/1/2000 9:52 PM MST

Hey all.
I just wanted to find out how any teams have active alumni who are active on the team and how many have college students who still function on the team. How do these people pay for themselves (trips, etc.)? How do they go about staying with your team dispite not being a high school student? What does your sponsor/teachers/engineers think about them and their situation? Should they be excluded? Are they just as welcome on your team as they were the year before, etc.?
Please, respond.

-erin

2

Posted by Ken.

Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.

Posted on 10/2/2000 12:28 AM MST

In Reply to: The Alumni Situation posted by Erin on 10/1/2000 9:52 PM MST:

Well… (hey GRT people, I hope you all are reading this, cuz I told you about this forum before)

I finished my second year in GRT last year, and I cannot say I am really close to the team this year.

I pretty much kept silence the first year due to my lack of experience and communication skills. All I did was sat inside the workshop and kept on machining parts after parts. So second year, my skills paid off and I was fortunate enough to be appointed head of workshop because everyone else is too smart to be just sitting in the shop… and finally I got to be driver last year and pit support. So I must say that my machining skills and driver experience will help the team a lot this year because of the large turn over rate every year.

However, I’ve graduated from Gunn, and I am attending UC Berkeley. It will take me three hours of public transportation to go back to GRT, and only during weekends. I am disconnected from the team’s normal activities, decision and classes all the time.

I know it’s not going to be the same anymore… I will never be as close to the team as last year, I will never be able to talk to them like I am part of them, I will only be sitting in the shop all the time, and I will never be part of the fun again. I am still not sure how my team will think about me, because I don’t think they understand I am going to be back for the competition. But I already feel the disconnection cuz I no longer know the people, and I am always afraid to open up to unfamiliar people.

I am a risk to the team because I will be doing/teaching some machining while the new members are supposed to learn on their own, and I might spoil the team because I’ve been doing lots of ‘little-work’ for the team.

BUT, all these are not going to stop me from working with GRT one more year. Sure it will be a tough time, but hey, I always love the callenge. The competition is so much fun. I love the learning, I love the FIRST community (that mean all you who are reading this), and I will not leave GRT because of those good old mill and lathe. So, we will have to see if they will kick me out later or something… Maybe they will be generous enough to let me stay, maybe even goto NH to listen LIVE at the comming competition, and maybe I will get to go to Florida a 2nd time.

3

Posted by Joe Ross.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]

Engineer on team #330, Beach Bot 2000, from Hope Chapel Academy and NASA/JPL & J&F Machine.

Posted on 10/2/2000 2:31 AM MST

In Reply to: The Alumni Situation posted by Erin on 10/1/2000 9:52 PM MST:

Erin,

I am a former student who helped out my team this year. The first year I was on the team, it was also the team’s first year, and I basically stayed on the side and learned as much as I could about the electrical and control systems. The next year we basically started over and I did virtually all the electrical system by myself. The next year (when I was a senior) we were more organized and had 1 professinal engineer helping with the controls and 2 helping with the electrical. I basically stepped back and did very little wiring or coding, but instead acted as the system integrator making sure that the electrical and control system teams were working together.

All this leads to what I did this last year. I stayed around for college and knew that I wanted to stay involoved. Very early in the year, I went to the team leaders and expressed an interest in coming back with the team as an engineer. Because of my previous track record, the team leaders didn’t have any problem with me becoming an engineer. I basically did the same thing that I did before because no one expressed an interest in working with both the programming and the electrical systems.

To answer you question, if I had been a ‘normal’ student without any special knowledge, then I wouldn’t have been welcome back as a surrogate student. But, because I had something valuable to add, they didn’t have any problem with me taking an active role.

I was treated the same as any other engineer. My trip to the regional competitiong in San Jose was paid, just like for every other engineer and student. I did not go to Florida because it interfered to much with my college schedule. They would have paid my way because I was valuable to both control and electrical teams.

In other words, most students would not be welcome back in their former roles. I was an exception because I could contribute as much as a professional engineer.

: Hey all.
: I just wanted to find out how any teams have active alumni who are active on the team and how many have college students who still function on the team. How do these people pay for themselves (trips, etc.)? How do they go about staying with your team dispite not being a high school student? What does your sponsor/teachers/engineers think about them and their situation? Should they be excluded? Are they just as welcome on your team as they were the year before, etc.?
: Please, respond.

: -erin

4

Posted by Justin.

Other on team Blue Lightning Alumni Association from RWU sponsored by FIRST-A-holics Anonymous.

Posted on 10/2/2000 3:41 PM MST

In Reply to: The Alumni Situation posted by Erin on 10/1/2000 9:52 PM MST:

Hello,

I am an alumni of Team Blue Lightning, or Team 146. I am currently a sophomore at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI. This is about a two hour drive south of Manchester where the team is based. My freshman year here at school I did not have a car. However my winter break is quite long and I was able to help at Kick-off and work with the team during thier intial brain storms. I also returned home to help the team ship the robot as it was a long weekend for me. I had very good long standing realtionships with the engineers on the team and was welcomed back very easily. While I didn’t go to the regionals with the team persay I did go up and route them on as we came in 2nd at the 2000 New England Regionals.

I had as much fun as I have any other FIRST season and many on the team expressed thier appreciation for my help, an in fact I have a silver medal from that 2nd place finish.

It is different and I have considered contacting the Middletown, RI team…but have not done so because I have found there is that certian bond to my old team and the Manchester Teams in general (CHAOS :wink: This year I am planning on participating in many of the same ways as I always have and suspect that I will be even more valuable as we transition from an old sponsor to a new one.

I think one of the things missed most was being able to travel to the Nationals. I made a lot of new FIRST friends and it would have been to hang with them all at nationals. This year I am planning on going to the NE Regionals out in Hartford and also to the Philly Regionals.

So that’s my experience,

-Justin

5

Posted by nick237.

Engineer on team #237, sie h2o bots, from Watertown high school ct and sieman co.

Posted on 10/3/2000 8:36 PM MST

In Reply to: The Alumni Situation posted by Erin on 10/1/2000 9:52 PM MST:

This being only our 2nd year in competition we relied heavily on the students who were with us the first year to help guide new students entering the team.
We had no seniors graduating after the first year so we were not affected but it hit us hard when this year we had several key members graduate and move on to collage.
I dont know why but after this summers vacation we had our first meeting for old and new students and low and behold there at the back of the room were several graduated members who had volunteered to return and mentor this year.
Call it an addiction but being addicted to FIRST is a great thing to be on.
nick team237

: Hey all.
: I just wanted to find out how any teams have active alumni who are active on the team and how many have college students who still function on the team. How do these people pay for themselves (trips, etc.)? How do they go about staying with your team dispite not being a high school student? What does your sponsor/teachers/engineers think about them and their situation? Should they be excluded? Are they just as welcome on your team as they were the year before, etc.?
: Please, respond.

: -erin