Community Outreach—11:55 AM, Friday, April 3rd, 2020
The important thing to realize about FIRST and FRC is that it is so much more than just a Robotics competition. More than the technical subsystems or advanced engineering programs, more than the commercial subsystems—Business, Chairmans, Imagery—, FIRST is about spreading STEM to the entire community; the teams and competition are merely conduits.
Through outreach events and partnerships with a variety of local businesses, FRC teams increase community interest in FIRST and STEM and aid other FIRST teams—mainly FRC and FTC—in and outside of their community.
What are outreach events?
Outreach events involve interacting with the community, be helping rookie teams in the FIRST community, hosting or contributing to local events in person or online, with social media outlets or more challenging endeavors like publishing a video series or magazine, some of which are student-translated into other languages reach a wider audience.
Other FRC teams have reached out to government representatives or promote STEM and FIRST in other countries or start summer camps centered on cultivating a love for STEM in younger children.
I am not going to pretend to have a perfect understanding of the inner workings of FRC and FIRST, but I think that it is an incredible initiative.
That is why so many professional engineers take tens of hours out of their week to mentor FRC teams. It is never just about the group of high schoolers in the team; it is about all the people that those high schoolers will influence, both on the team and after graduation, and then the impressive impact of the people who they touch.
There is an amazing number of FRC teams, currently in the thousands and likely to reach the ten thousands in a few more years. Even if I were to dedicate this blog to all the incredible initiatives of these teams for the rest of my life—which I will not, because I am selfish—I could not possibly hope to document all of them and explain them in all their glory.
Instead of reading random words of an unknowledgeable and anonymous blog writer, you can easily find the efforts of FIRST teams by searching "FIRST Chairmans" on youtube.
After all, the Chairman's subsystem is dedicated to organizing outreach efforts and documenting them, as well as using prior documentation to reform and refine future outreach efforts. Furthermore, students are proud to share their team's contributions through high-quality Chairman's videos.
Watching these videos reminds me how much of a global phenomenon FIRST is, and that FIRST expands far beyond the realm of STEM. From the passion of these students and their dedication to the program and their communities, and the snapshots of leadership, teamwork, and communication, it would be unfair to classify FRC as just a high school STEM program, especially considering the numerous contributions of adult volunteers and mentors.
There is so much more to elaborate on in this program, and I feel as if I lack the sophistication of language to properly present this program, but...
I'll keep posting.
