Well here’s a good topic for all of you. I’m doing a thesis paper for my junior english class and I’ve picked what i think to be a very interesting topic. What is it you ask well I’ll tell you, it is “Is FIRST beneficial to students participating in it.” Well I believe it is and I need some thoughts and examples of how this is true. So start giving me some ideas for my paper and thank you to all that post. 
FIRST has a lot of good information about this: http://www.usfirst.org/about/impact.htm and http://www.usfirst.org/about/media.htm
On a more personal level, for me, FIRST has taken a lot of time away from my school work. I’m still playing catch-up. But, on the plus side, I’ve discovered what it is I can do, what my potential is. I am my team’s captain, and I discovered in myself to what level I can gain respect and to what level I can take charge. Also, I saw my team build something well beyond our knowledge, and well beyond what I thought we could do with our limited tools. I can honestly say that FIRST has been the most difficult and strenuous thing I’ve ever participated in. It’s also taken the most dedication. But it’s also been, hands down, the single greatest thing that I have done in high school. And the most rewarding. I don’t know of any other way to gain the same type of real-world experience with engineering in high school. FIRST is set up as a real-world project. You need to acquire funding, get the right people on the team, get knowledge that you odn’t have from elsewhere (engineers and research), manage your time, put in the dedication, and compete with other ‘companies’ to make the best bot (and best team.) Of course, FIRST is different in that it doesn’t assess the ‘best’ the same way that, say, corporate America does. In that sense, everyone tries to be the best team possible, and those that try, are. Only those that don’t try, aren’t.
In a nutshell:
I recieved a marriage proposal from Woodie Flowers, I was laied by Dave Lavery, and I work my body for Dean every day!
FIRST is going well
(Explanation: I gave Woodie a neck rub at BAE and he asked to marry me because it was so good, there were lots of Hawaiian teams in Annapolis and Lavery put his lai around my neck, and I work work work hard at DEKA for iBOT on every other day of the week.)
*i just had to write this down somewhere… * 
Do you have any idea how much I’ve learned this year? =) I was almost too shy to join in past years (I’m a junior now), but I decided to try it out this year. My school is a pre-engineering academy, and a pretty large percentage of our students have parents who work as engineers. I felt like I was miles and miles behind everyone else. But then I had 6 amazing weeks of experience. I would say the best part about FIRST is the learning. Do you want examples?
Everything below is completely true. I’d never used all those tools and items I learned about and had never even heard of most of them. Everything here was something completely new I learned. (OK, except for maybe the part about guys. And planning. 
)
Since kick-off…
I learned how to use set screws.
I learned how to use a Leatherman, a center punch, a tap wrench, a soldering iron, a dremel, a drill press, and epoxy.
I learned what rocker switches, ground studs, 80-20, drop sliders, bearings, sprockets, speed controllers, relays, terminal ends, spades, terminal blocks, LED drivers, D-shell connectors, and PWM cables are. And how to use them.
I learned that. . .
You should never let guys tell you how to do something because their method is most likely needlessly complex. =)
You can wire an entire control panel in one day without any previous electrical experience whatsoever.
You need to take the paper off the Lexan BEFORE you mount speed controllers on it with wood screws.
All those long technical specification documents for electronics equipment aren’t really that hard to understand.
Planning means everything while you’re doing it and nothing once you start implementation.
Not bad for 6 weeks. =)
Another thing that’s really great about FIRST is that it gives everyone the opportunity to work with each other and bring the best out of everyone to achieve one similar goal! Sure, we can do that on other teams… But FIRST is so different in that even if we lose, we’re still happy because we’ve learned something. And it’s fun ALL THE TIME. Everyone gets an equal opportunity.
Hey everyone thanks again for all the help and I hope to get more posts out of this thing. Give me what ever you want from personal experiences to something you’ve read anything that you think is a benefit of FIRST and hey you might just be quoted in my paper. 
I think the proper question would be something more along the lines of:
If you can think of three, what are the things that haven’t been benefits from FIRST?
Almost everything that has happened to me in FIRST has either been a simulation of the real world, or has given me skills that can help me after I graduate (I say almost because there is always an exception to every rule, and though I can’t think of one now I know it’s there).
I’ve learned so much in one short build season that I couldn’t even begin to explain it all. I’ve gone from seeing something and just thinking wow, to seeing it and thinking, how could I make that? Or a lot of the basics on the robot that I would have to call a mentor over to help me on, I could now probably do in my sleep.