This post is written by Kendra Grossman, a graduating senior who has been part of the FIRST Robotics Competition throughout her four years of high school
The last few weeks of my high school career flew by and it didn`t really feel like it was the end. On my last day my robotics coach, Jeff Smith, gave me a hug and that’s when it hit me; I was no longer a high school student. Don`t get me wrong, honestly I was very happy to be done with high school, but at the same time, I was saddened by the thought that completing high school means no longer being a student on the FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) team 1024, Kil-A-Bytes. For the past four years my life has revolved around robotics, I couldn`t wait till school started because preseason would start, then I couldn`t wait until second semester started so that build season would start and then March meant competition season and so on. My team was a family to me. For 46 days, we spent almost every day together, we ate together, we did homework together, we disagreed with one another, we argued and of course we build a pretty darn cool robot together.
Sitting through a 2 hour long graduation ceremony gave me lots of time to reflect on my past 4 years and mostly I reflected on my robotics team and how FRC changed my life. In the fall I am headed to Michigan Tech to study environmental engineering. Before I joined the robotics team I honestly never would have considered becoming an engineer and now I am Miss “it’s not trash, I can fix it.” Through FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) I met lifelong friends, not only on my own team, but across the country, and I created networks that will probably be very influential later on in my life. Through process and determination I learned many new skills, while further developing my other skills, like leadership and teamwork. Robotics isn’t just about the competition, and it’s definitely not about winning, though I`m not going to lie, winning is a nice bonus. FIRST is all about learning to appreciate knowledge and with that knowledge becoming the future of America.
Trying to describe what FRC means to me is impossible. The opportunities that I have experienced are unbelievable. Thinking back, I was trying to come up with a few memories to share with you, but there are such so many to choose from. However, I did choose 2 that I think sum-up FIRST. Here they are and I hope you enjoy them and are able to get a small glimpse into the world of FIRST, though to be honest you will never be able to truly understand what t means until you experience it yourself. As my father put it during his first competition, “This is bigger than high school basketball!”
At my very first FRC competition I began to truly understand what FIRST is all about. The founders, Dean Kamen and Woody Flowers preach about “coopertition” and “gracious professionalism.” However, experiencing these things is totally different and much more meaningful then listening to them being preached. Anyway, back to my story, 1024 had made it to the finals, when our robot caught fire. Let me tell you, it’s a very scary moment watching smoke leak from the robot as volunteers run towards it with fire extinguishers, lucky for us they didn`t use them. What happened was that some wires heated up, quickly caught on fire and went out, but with only one tiny hole for the smoke to escape, the fire seemed much worse than it was. We had to rewire the robot and very quickly. Our alliance used its only timeout as team members began rewiring and our back up robot got ready to compete. As our timeout began to run out, the opposing alliance teams were ready to use their timeout to give us 8 more minutes to fix our robot. To me, this is what coopertition and gracious professionalism is all about, that the opposing alliance was ready to sacrifice their timeout so that we had time to finish rewiring our robot. We went on to win that competition, because all five of the other teams were right there ready to help. That’s truly what FIRST is all about.
Earlier, I mentioned that FRC was about learning to appreciate the knowledge that we have and that we gain. This can be a hard thing to teach high school kids who think they know it all. Until this past year, I honestly don`t think that I fully appreciated my knowledge, until I was able to apply it to a situation outside of building a robot for competition. This past fall, the principal from a local elementary school approached the team and asked if we could design a bench as a memorial for a teacher who was murdered about two years ago. Applying the knowledge we learned through building robots, four other students, three mentors and I were able to design a butterfly bench that “represented Sandy perfectly” and were able to use our networking to have the materials and labor completely donated. At first the project was really about building our leadership skills for the following build season, but it turned into so much more than that. Seeing the expression one everyone’s faces during the dedication ceremony made it all worth it. It’s impossible to describe the feeling that comes with the completion of a project like this. FIRST is all about applying knowledge in every aspect of life and until you do it, it’s hard to understand just how much FIRST is preparing you for the future.
The last few weeks of my high school career flew by and it didn`t really feel like it was the end. On my last day my robotics coach, Jeff Smith, gave me a hug and that’s when it hit me; I was no longer a high school student. Don`t get me wrong, honestly I was very happy to be done with high school, but at the same time, I was saddened by the thought that completing high school means no longer being a student on the FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) team 1024, Kil-A-Bytes. For the past four years my life has revolved around robotics, I couldn`t wait till school started because preseason would start, then I couldn`t wait until second semester started so that build season would start and then March meant competition season and so on. My team was a family to me. For 46 days, we spent almost every day together, we ate together, we did homework together, we disagreed with one another, we argued and of course we build a pretty darn cool robot together.
Sitting through a 2 hour long graduation ceremony gave me lots of time to reflect on my past 4 years and mostly I reflected on my robotics team and how FRC changed my life. In the fall I am headed to Michigan Tech to study environmental engineering. Before I joined the robotics team I honestly never would have considered becoming an engineer and now I am Miss “it’s not trash, I can fix it.” Through FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) I met lifelong friends, not only on my own team, but across the country, and I created networks that will probably be very influential later on in my life. Through process and determination I learned many new skills, while further developing my other skills, like leadership and teamwork. Robotics isn’t just about the competition, and it’s definitely not about winning, though I`m not going to lie, winning is a nice bonus. FIRST is all about learning to appreciate knowledge and with that knowledge becoming the future of America.
Trying to describe what FRC means to me is impossible. The opportunities that I have experienced are unbelievable. Thinking back, I was trying to come up with a few memories to share with you, but there are such so many to choose from. However, I did choose 2 that I think sum-up FIRST. Here they are and I hope you enjoy them and are able to get a small glimpse into the world of FIRST, though to be honest you will never be able to truly understand what t means until you experience it yourself. As my father put it during his first competition, “This is bigger than high school basketball!”
At my very first FRC competition I began to truly understand what FIRST is all about. The founders, Dean Kamen and Woody Flowers preach about “coopertition” and “gracious professionalism.” However, experiencing these things is totally different and much more meaningful then listening to them being preached. Anyway, back to my story, 1024 had made it to the finals, when our robot caught fire. Let me tell you, it’s a very scary moment watching smoke leak from the robot as volunteers run towards it with fire extinguishers, lucky for us they didn`t use them. What happened was that some wires heated up, quickly caught on fire and went out, but with only one tiny hole for the smoke to escape, the fire seemed much worse than it was. We had to rewire the robot and very quickly. Our alliance used its only timeout as team members began rewiring and our back up robot got ready to compete. As our timeout began to run out, the opposing alliance teams were ready to use their timeout to give us 8 more minutes to fix our robot. To me, this is what coopertition and gracious professionalism is all about, that the opposing alliance was ready to sacrifice their timeout so that we had time to finish rewiring our robot. We went on to win that competition, because all five of the other teams were right there ready to help. That’s truly what FIRST is all about.
Earlier, I mentioned that FRC was about learning to appreciate the knowledge that we have and that we gain. This can be a hard thing to teach high school kids who think they know it all. Until this past year, I honestly don`t think that I fully appreciated my knowledge, until I was able to apply it to a situation outside of building a robot for competition. This past fall, the principal from a local elementary school approached the team and asked if we could design a bench as a memorial for a teacher who was murdered about two years ago. Applying the knowledge we learned through building robots, four other students, three mentors and I were able to design a butterfly bench that “represented Sandy perfectly” and were able to use our networking to have the materials and labor completely donated. At first the project was really about building our leadership skills for the following build season, but it turned into so much more than that. Seeing the expression one everyone’s faces during the dedication ceremony made it all worth it. It’s impossible to describe the feeling that comes with the completion of a project like this. FIRST is all about applying knowledge in every aspect of life and until you do it, it’s hard to understand just how much FIRST is preparing you for the future.
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