FIRST Technology Challenge

Imagine it, the FIRST World Championships and Festival . You are in America’s Ballroom, which is packed with teams, coaches and mentors, video cameras and photographers, and Dean Kamen. He’s speaking to you about the importance of STEM, and how you are the future. But he doesn’t mean “you” rhetorically or “you” as an audience member or “you” as a young adult. He literally means you , a Dean’s List Award Winner. Alec Kumpf and Simran Parwani are both 2014 FIRST Robotics Competition Dean’s List winners. Since 2010, ten FRC team members each year have been on the stage in America’s Ballroom with Dean Kamen to receive the Dean’s List Award, meaning Simran and Alec are part of a group of fifty winners. That’s fifty out of almost five thousand finalists.   This year, there will be ten more FRC team members added to the ranks, and for the first time, ten FTC team members as well. Alec onstage at the FIRST Dean's List Award ceremony “The whole experience is priceless. Very few experienc

FIRST is a community that allows for a lifetime of opportunities to become involved. For Sarah Fogwell, her volunteering career started early. As a 7 th grader, Sarah stepped in and found a way to do more than just compete during the FIRST Tech Challeng e season. She reached out and had a fellow volunteer teach her “the field control system and set up, and [she] took off from there.” “My first thoughts about volunteering at a robotics competition were, whoa, I went from competing to now running competitions, how much nerdier can I get?” But that's not how the rest of the world sees Sarah. JoAnn Halloran, FTC Program Manager, describes Sarah as someone who shows "willingness to step out of her comfort zone, to lend a hand, to try new things and to encourage those around her to do the same. She is a remarkable team member, and an even more remarkable volunteer." When asked to name one of the highlights from her volunteer experience, she recalls her first year at World Ch