FIRST Ladies: The Patronum Bots Make It Loud

By Rachel Hunter

Everyone knows about the gender gap and that men outnumber women in FIRST and in STEM careers. FIRST teams have been challenged to "Make It Loud" and help engage more young people in STEM activities. Girls on FIRST teams all over the world are already doing big things, and it’s time to bring those talents to the forefront and showcase them for the rest of the FIRST community. In June 2014, FTC Team 5972, The Patronum Bots, created FIRST Ladies to do just that.

The intention of the FIRST Ladies community is to create a space for female members of any FIRST program to unite and learn from each other’s experiences. As the numbers grew to over one hundred before the first month was even over, it became apparent that it had the potential to do much more than that. FIRST Ladies began to expand its reach and recruit FRC and alumni partners. It began with FRC Team 3132, The Thunder Down Under, from Sydney, Australia partnering with Patronum Bots to promote the FIRST Ladies community and involve more girls throughout the world.  Then FIRST Alumni like Libby Kamen, Claudia Dube and Erin Mitchell agreed to join the Patronum Bots to promote the FIRST Ladies community. As membership grew, FIRST Ladies members added members, coaches and alumni from influential veteran FTC and FRC teams, and  many well-known retired teams. In November, the community partnered with the FIRST AmeriCorps VISTA program on their new Girls Collaborative Project to work on engaging girls with their local FIRST community.

By December, FIRST Ladies reached over 300 members from 5 countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, and Brazil. One of our community goals is to expand to over 10 countries before the World Championship in April. FIRST Ladies’ long term goals include:

• Forming a network to start matching up teams with adult mentors or coaches

• Inviting female engineers in industry to host webinars to provide advice to members interested in become engineers
• Hosting meetups for FIRST Ladies at competitions throughout the world, ultimately hosting a meetup at the FIRST World Championship
• Sharing workshop curriculum and materials so FIRST Ladies affiliated teams can use the materials to inspire young girls to get involved with FIRST and STEM activities
• Invite corporations to host webinars and join the FIRST Ladies community to sponsor events and share information about industry trends and career opportunities

Despite the name of FIRST Ladies, we are not an exclusive group. We are an organization looking to create a community where girls feel supported pursuing any activity. While we do focus on young women, we strive to involve any men who are interested in supporting their daughters, sisters or friends. We have several male members of the FIRST Ladies community already, and are open to including anyone who supports the mission of encouraging girls to follow their dreams.

Kids who participate in FIRST are going to change the world. The girls and women on FIRST teams are no exception. With FIRST Ladies, we are hoping to show the entire world what the women of STEM are capable of. By supporting the young women on your team or in your FIRST community, you are ensuring that they feel supported to go out and do amazing things with their lives.

You can start by going to the FIRST Ladies website to officially register. You will find links to the Facebook group, Twitter, or Tumblr. The FIRST Ladies’ primary form of communication is an open Facebook group, along with emails that go out when there are announcements. Every Saturday, there is a new blog posted to our website. These blogs are written by members of the group about topics of their choice, and are inspirational to girls who need advice. To read any blogs that have been published, or to sign up as a guest blogger, go to ladiesinfirst.com/blog. Any questions about the FIRST Ladies community can be directed to ladiesinfirst@gmail.com and The Patronum Bots team will respond.