When I began in first. I was in 5th grade. Seeing the programming and building in First Lego League was amazing. How can a 11 year old build a robot? A better question is, why don't people understand how amazing FIRST is! There is no other program where kids as young as 6 can start working with robots. I'm on 1 of 3 Girlscout FRC teams. I makes me so sad when I see the amount of girls interested in robotics. I would just like to tell all girls who are passionate about robotics to tell all other girls, if they want to be in robotics, do it!
My husband and I became involved with FIRST in 2009 when our son was looking on the web for academic challenge. The experience has been irreplaceable ! Now we are running a nonprofit for several FIRST robotics teams and mentoring. FIRST builds successful, confident, and bright students for our future workforce. The students become better problem solvers, team players, and learn a variety of skills. This skills include machining, programming, electrical, CAD, pneumatics, designing, and following a timeline. Because of the success of the students that have been through our FIRST program, we continue our mission even though our son is in college. Seventeen students have graduated with FIRST skills from our team and received $799,000.00 in college scholarships. THAT IS SUCCESS! All of them credit FIRST for their choices that have made. It doesn't end there, once graduated, they continue by finding other teams and programs so they can continue to mentor. It is a wonderful cycle that encourages giving back to your community. I know from experience, once you get involved you get hooked on FIRST.