As the 2023 season comes closer and closer, the more I realize that as a senior, I will be graduating from highschool and going onto college. But I still have a large commitment to try to stay involved with my team and the experiences they will have in the next period of our lives. So for those who are seniors and or college students involved with your teams, how fo you plan on staying involved with your teams and what advice from mentors who have been on teams for 4-5 years would you give to young students who want to mentor for their teams or other teams in need? How do you keep yourself involved?
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Take a break before you jump back in. I know thatâs probably not what you want to hear, but I think itâs very important.
If you try to step right back in you will have issues with separation between mentor and student. I know a lot of teams have a rule that donât allow alumni to immediately mentor. It takes time to process and understand what a mentor is there for and you need to make sure you understand itâs not about you anymore. Itâs about teaching the students what you know and have learned. The program isnât for mentors to learn and build a robot, itâs for them to teach students how to do that.
When I left my team to go to college I wanted to mentor so bad. I even mentored a local team on my campus, but I realized I just really wanted to be involved with the robot. So the next year or two I took a step back. I helped with events and went to regionals, but didnât mentor any teams which helped me to create that student to mentor separation. It allowed me to see what I had to offer the students and how beneficial the program was to me and how I could help other students get the same or better out of it as I did.
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A big part of college is gaining new experiences and insights. If you intend to continue working with your high school team, consider spending at least two years with another team while in college. Doesnât even have to be FRC.
By learning how other organizations operate, you can bring back home some critical intelligence. Strengthen things your team does well; replace some inadequacies with the strategies youâve learned from the other team. Youâll all be better for it.
Also, every student deserves the chance to be a Senior on the team. If you stick around past your âexpiration dateâ, that robs the current Juniors (and other underclassmen) the opportunity of becoming the 2024 team leaders, and to mold the team to their interests, goals, and benefits.
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Remote mentoring can still be pretty effective if you arenât in the area. That said one of the best ways I think you can engage with your old team is to just be a sounding board for the kids that are a couple years younger than you. Itâs nice for them to have someone to go to who isnât a scary real adult when they need either technical help or just some peer advice. But also on the flip side itâs their team now, so have to be cautious and let them run the show. Some teams have a no alumni mentor policy for 1-2 years for this reason.
Having been through this whole experience in the last 4-5 years, definitely take some time to do college things too. Hang out with friends, join clubs, etc â whatever floats your boat. Itâs too easy to remain in the world of FRC and forget about all of the other amazing things college has to offer, particularly when itâs with your old team. Definitely struggled with that at times even though I was remote.
Some schools have FIRST alumni groups which are a nice way to meet other college students who want to mentor local teams or volunteer at events in the vicinity. I wasnât personally involved in ours but know people that were and had a great time.
FRC and mentoring will always be there after college too. It might not have the same feel as alumni mentoring your old team, since all the people you went to high school with will have graduated. But being a âreal adultâ mentor is still super rewarding as well 
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I love these points especially, Iâve been trying to innovate my students earlier on to get them ready for 2023, there is a very fine line between being a mentor and a student. I realize that in order to create that seperation, it is a good idea to take some time to realize that divide, mentoring remotely will also help in my opinion, less ways for me to get mixed up in working on a robot, more ways to influence teaching from behind the glass. I think my current goal is to enjoy college and enjoy the time with people I meet, get a reliable job to support myself, and after those years of learning and experiences, Iâll have a better idea of the importance of letting these new students have a chance (cause trust me I donât want to have to do 2 electrical boards by myself like I did in 2022 ever again haha.)
Also a mentor I would like to point out that has influenced me a ton to becoming a mentor is @Nick.kremer , fantastic mentor and amazing person that Iâve worked with since my first day on the team. His commitment inspires me to take on the responsibilities of a mentor and teach new students amazing and innovative ways to compete in FRC.
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We ask our graduating seniors to give it two years before they seek to come back as mentors. You need that break to adjust to post-high school life and the younger members need that space to grow into their senior years. In the meanwhile, if you can, come cheer your team on in their competitions.
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I am a mentor and coach and I have seen this many times. FRC is hard to step away from after investing so much time and energy for so long. I have to agree with what the others have said here. Take time to concentrate on you. College is a big step and can be more time consuming than you might think. One of the âissuesâ I have seen with newly graduated seniors coming back the next season is that many of the high schoolers will still see you as âone of themâ (meaning as a student on the team) and not as a mentor. You will have to fight the urge to do everything that you used to do as a student. Mentoring is a whole different mindset, or at least it ought to be.
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It is also likely they will not listen to you in the way because they may still see you as one of them.
For many people, college/university is a huge step up in terms of time commitment so you may not have sufficient time to actually serve as a mentor. You will only know once you start working on your college curriculum. It may be possible to volunteer at events (near your college) since it is âjust a few daysâ of time.
You will also have much more to contribute to a team after you have been in the working world for 5 years or more. There are experiences and things you will be exposed to that you do not have to chance to experience or be exposed to until you are in the working world. Those years of work experience will also give you credibility in the eyes of the students that you cannot get any other way.
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I agree with everyone whoâs recommended taking a break for a year or two. While itâs not impossible to be a good mentor your freshman year of college, it is a difficult transition.
If you are really itching to stay involved, I recommend joining your team for kickoff and maybe the first few days/first week of the season, if your winter break overlaps with it. Ask your mentors if thereâs anything you can do to help out, bring snacks, and tell the current students what college is like. Donât get invested in the robot design, but maybe you can help teach a specific skill. Weâve had alumni pop in during Week 1 and teach a student how to use the mill, or help someone fix a weird Onshape problem, or make a run to the store for more 2x4s, and those were really helpful things that didnât take any responsibility away from the current students. Later on, maybe you can come by one of your teamâs competitions during your spring break and cheer on your team.
I know sometimes it can feel unfriendly or unwelcoming to have so many people say âdonât be a mentor yet!â I promise your mentors and the younger students would still love to see you, itâs just important not to bite off more than you can chew.
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This question is as old as FIRST. The real answer is that one size definitely DOES NOT fit all.
Lots of good advice has been offered by those who posted already. I highly recommend volunteering at a nearby event if that option is open to you. Also getting involved with your college or universityâs FIRST support program if it has one. Youâre young but your experience is valuable, and not just to your old team.
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My team has a rule disallowing any students from returning as mentors until four years after graduation - theoretically, so that any students who were on the team with them will have graduated. This is specifically to counter the issue with the mentors-to-be being treated like âsuper-seniorsâ.
That said, weâre fine with them coming back for kickoff to socialize. We havenât had any situations (yet, fingers crossed) where a freshly graduated student tries to get involved in the brainstorming and kickoff discussions, but I think weâd draw the line there.
I personally found it helpful to step away, but keep an eye on what the team was doing. It helped me grow and not define myself by who I was in high school.
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Like many things in FRC, John V-Neun has a great article all about it:
For what itâs worth, 1672 has a four-year rule, effectively making it so that you canât come back to mentor till all your past teammates have graduated. I think itâs a good one; itâs easy to get hyperfocused on âyour teamâ and âwinningâ and âomg robotsâ and lose track of other things you want to do. (There are many other things besides FRC in lifeâshocker!) Once youâve gotten used to university, gotten to know the other stuff going on, then maybe come back and help out some team. Probably good for it to be another team, to avoid any conflicts of interest or âunfinished businessâ.
Personally, Iâm going to stick to volunteering (and hopefully getting progressively fancier colours of cap) for at least two years; then maybe mentor if thereâs a nearby team thatâs in need of mentors and whose program I like.
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Mentoring is truly a huge time commitment. Despite being geographically close, I know my limits and schedule as such.
Usually, this means weekends only and maybe +1 weekday if I can get my stuff done.
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Mentor during winter break until school starts again.
Caveat - I am not one of these, but I interact with them frequently.
My fairly cold advice is to de-prioritize your high school robotics team.
I always ask college students about their FRC experience when I review resumes, but Iâd be looking at them a bit funky if FRC is the only extra-curricular they had, even through college.
Verily, there are many other similar competitions which are better suited for a college-level set of skills.
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Would like to echo the advice above. After your final competition in senior year, just forget about robotics until kickoff and then decide if you still want to be involved. If you really still want to, find a team to help out during your college winter break. That usually gives you a good 3 weeks to do robotics stuff, then stop when college starts again.
I did this and it was easy to hold myself to that as I went to college 3.5 hrs away from home where the team I was mentoring was.
Team DAVE has always had a majority of the mentor force from either university students or young professionals. We have found that the students are less intimated to interact with the young mentors and makes for a unique dynamic where the students and mentors work together cohesively. I believe mentoring in university can be a fulfilling experience as you can physically apply the concepts youâre learning in school while also connecting with the students and really inspire them to work hard to get into university.
Others have discussed the merits of mentoring in university and the biggest one I agree with is to join a new team for a season or two before rejoining your highschool team. I went down this route in my first year of university and It really helped my perspective on how other successful teams operate and let me grow into an effective mentor by being forced to gain the respect of new people & avoid the âsuper seniorâ mentality by physically working in a new team environment.
Just anecdotally I went to a couple meetings for my universityâs formula and robotics teams and the culture was not what I was looking for in a competitive team. The team members seemed to be more focused on building something cool and looks good on their resume instead of putting in all they can to win the competition.
Being a key mentor on any team requires a huge amount of time, I have definitely let my schooling slip in order to help my team. However I got all my internships and full time offer based off the work I did in FRC and they seem to care very little about my school performance. Youâll have to make the tradeoffs yourself.
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Ethan,
You have received lots of fantastic advice in this thread. You have a very bright future ahead of you, so while your passion for 3512 and FRC in general is infectious, donât be afraid to explore what else is out there as you transition out of High School next year. I think the suggestions to take a break for a few years, remote mentor instead, or volunteer at events are dead on the money.
This means more to me than you may know! Glad to be a part of your journey. From the bottom of my heart, itâs been a blast!
-Kremer
P.S. Eyes on the prize, youâve got a offseason comp this weekend, canât wait to see you tearing it up on a real field and itâll be my honor to serve as your drive coach.
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I was not prepared to feel emotional today-
Thank you so much for your wise words Kremer!
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For me, the biggest effect I made on my alumni team was mentoring FLL students that would eventually become FRC students. I still see them running around at FRC events 6 years later.
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Your highest priority in college is college, not your former team nor FRC. If sometime (years) later you want to mentor, you can then bring your experience to the/a team and they will be better off for it.
Iâm not saying you canât be in contact with your team nor give guidance, but the purpose of FRC is to prepare you to be a more successful college student, hopefully with a scholarship; then on to work and/or grad school.
Thereafter if your work, school, family schedule allows, you can circle back and mentor and/or sponsor ($) a team, now bringing your work experience with you.
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