FIRST’s mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders. A major catalyst to accomplish this is FIRST’s connection to mentors. A FIRST mentor is anyone who can contribute to a FIRST team. This includes the non technical types who are essential in contributing to teams in areas such as organization, transportation, meal providers during late night build sessions, marketing, spirit and business committee leaders. All of these are great areas where non technical mentors can contribute to a FIRST team. However, when a team is fortunate enough to include technical mentors who are professional engineers and technologists who lend their time to a local team, team participants gain a wealth of understanding about careers and opportunities that exist and continue to be created for engineers and techies today and in the future—not to mention the fantastic benefits these occupations provide.
So yes, FIRST serves to inspire young people but time and time again, professional engineers and technologists who are introduced to FIRST get completely taken with the game challenges and the opportunity to innovate that they find a way to get involved. FIRST inspires mentors to inspire young people.
“Seeing kids apply knowledge to scientific applications; Seeing sweat put into their own real world engineering creations; Seeing kids get excited over technology; That’s why I’m a FIRST robotics mentor,” said Joe Varnell, a Lockheed Martin employee and a third year mentor to South Grand Prairie High School’s FRC Team 704. “Plus, I get to play with robots.”
Mentor Joe Varnell pictured second to last on the far right.
Mr. Varnell serves FIRST in multiple ways while still committing his time to team 704. He shares his history with FIRST below.
“I started working with FIRST team 704 several years ago,” Mr. Varnell said. “I started by helping out a couple of hours a couple of times a week during the robot build season. I could see the excitement as the robot came together and as work was being put into the Chairman’s award presentation.
I thought it was great that the kids were giving up their time after school to build a Robot. I then went to the Dallas FIRST Robotics Competition event with the team. There was a stadium filled with kids and their Robots. Hundreds of kids were in the stands cheering for the Robots as they competed and hundreds of kids in the pits frantically working on repaires or last minute improvements on their Robots. Everyone was helping each other, teams helping other teams; it was Coopertition, the combination of cooperation and competition, in action.
That year, we went to the world championships, the Georgia Dome, the super bowl of FIRST robotics, the ‘Big Enchilada’. It was excitement beyond all expectations; Kids with youthful energy on the level of any traditional sporting event being put into technology and engineering event. The stadium was a patch work quilt of teams. Kids with team colors, from the top of their sculpted, painted hair, to the bottom of their multi-colored duct taped shoes. All that youthful energy and excitement over engineering creations, built in 6 weeks, by kids. It was amazing! I was totally hooked as a mentor.
Now I mentor FIRST team 704 and help as many other teams as I can with guidance and knowledge, and work elementary school Robot fanatics to High School robot fanatics. I also work as a volunteer at FIRST Competitions.
Being a mentor, I knew I was helping shape the future of the world. Helping kids unlock their potential, helping kids learn about science and engineering, and helping the kids build something they can see operate in real situations. Plus, I get to play with Robots! Nothing could be Cooler,” Mr. Varnell said.
If you are interested in connecting with a team in your area, FIRST in Texas provides a form allowing
the organization to match you with a team near you. Fill out a form today and get connected!
