Why Should I Join the Pink Titans Robotics Team?

Learn STEM-Focused Skills for Success

Your grandparents (and even parents!) may had worked in careers whose job descriptions stayed the same. Going into the 21st century, a career may likely have jobs that continually change to keep up with demands of a world becoming more connected. In this digital age, innovative ideas are being shared in growing numbers at a rate like never before. Increasingly greater numbers and diversity of people (e.g. more women) enter the workforce to share and apply information.

Learning STEM-focused skills - how to effectively collaborate, communicate, be creative, and critically think - are valuable to helping students succeed at adapting to changing jobs. In this increasingly connected, digital age, specific skills learned at university and college may not be relevant for long in the workplace!

FIRST's Gracious Professionalism and Co-opertition:

Support individuals on the team and outside the team
- Inspire individuals to help others and "pay it forward"
- Cheer for efforts of teammates on all teams

Article: Why STEM and robotics education - http://www.robots.education/why-stem-and-robotics-education.html

Read the story of Herman, Team 4625, and Gracious Professionalism in 2013 .

Find and Pursue Your Passion in STEM

If you enjoy learning your subjects in STEM, there is no better way to appreciate your knowledge and acquired skills than applying them to a real-world situation. The FIRST Robotics program simulates real-world scenarios where individuals with diverse skillsets and experiences collaborate to timely complete a project.

Karthik Kanagasabapathy is an award-winning mentor in the FIRST Robotics program. In his TEDx talk, embedded at right, Karthik discusses subtle secrets of success: 1. be your own person, 2. follow your passion, 3. compete ethically, 4. chase perfection, knowing that you'll find excellence along the way.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. If you want to be successful any anything, you have to be enthusiastic and care about it. If you are enthusiastic about something, you have a shot to be in the top 1% or being the best. If you're not enthusiastic about something, you're destined to be average or bad at it. However, you owe it to yourself to follow your enthusiasm and passion.
Thus when making decisions, its essential to follow your passions and your heart. Life is too short to work on something for 40 hours a week, doing something that you're not enthusiastic about.
Learning how to compete is a skill that's not taught on most places. You learn about expending maximal effort, how to rise about your opponent, determination, iteration, and never giving up. Competition isn't just in sports, but in life (applications for post-secondary, jobs). Students who learn to compete ethically in the right way, by rising above the competition instead of dragging them down, are the ones excelling.
Always strive to be better. Perfection does not exist. By chasing perfection however, one finds excellence along the way. Always think big with big goals and big dreams.
Don't be defined by your limits; limits, like fears, are often just an illusion. Everybody, people are constructing false limits around you, telling you what you can't do because everybody like you doesn't do it. The undisputed first law of personal growth: "People don't rise above the opinion of themselves." - Peter Sage (TEDx Talks. Jan. 23, 2020)

Simulation of the Real World
"FIRST Robotics Lets You Play With The Pros." - FIRSTInspires

Experience first-hand what it's like to utilize your learned skills (job-specific and STEM-focused) to help run an organization:

Learn to and actually operate the same tools, machines, software, and business-related programs utilized in industry
Make real-life engineering and business decisions
Interact and co-operate with co-workers of different ages, experiences, backgrounds, and opinions
Learn to know when and how to lead and follow
Volunteer to assist others when needed. Learn how to give and receive help.
Set short-term and long-term goals to achieve. Make and commit to plans. Organize your life schedule.
- Learn to adapt to changing plans, teams, and working environments
Learn something new every day!

Read the full testimonial by Nithusan Ranjanathan (Captain of 2015 FRC 5719 team) on the impact of the FIRST Robotics program on his career pathway:

"... it helped me to develop valuable team work skills by the way that we must co-operate as a team."
"... time management ... is just one of the valuable lessons that our members learned apart from the vast knowledge of the mechanical and electrical aspects."
"... I finally got to make connections from what we learned (in school) to the real world. This in turn helped me to pick an appropriate career path."
"... it is a truly exceptional experience which every student should indulge in."

Meet New People and Opportunities for Networking

Meet people that you would never meet before joining Robotics, but can help you to learn, improve, grow, and become a better person:

Team mates: Students of different ages, grades, experiences, backgrounds, cultures, and interests
Adult mentors: People from industry and the workforce who volunteer time to help students to succeed and find passions
At tournaments: Students, teachers, mentors of teams from different schools, cities, provinces, even countries!

Make friendships and relationships that can last beyond the FIRST Robotics experience!

Scholarships to Universities

FIRST Robotics Canada has thousands of dollars worth of scholarships to Ontario Universities:

http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/scholarships/
Requisites with very good academics: Demonstration of active participation on a FIRST Robotics Team, determined by teachers and adult mentors
- Depending on university, scholarships include financial aid to any program to full-merit scholarships to Engineering Program.

FIRST Program has $80 million dollars worth of scholarships from 200 American providers in 2018: https://www.firstinspires.org/scholarships

Opportunities For Expression of Creativity and Enthusiasm

Design, build, and control robot how team sees fit, as long as rules of game are followed!

Showcase theme of team and/or game:

Make signs, posters, multimedia presentations, songs
Colour and decorate
At Tournaments:
- Decorate and dress in costumes to complement team uniform at tournaments
- Design and decorate Pit Area, team mascot
- Chant, sing, dance with your teammates and with other teams!

Statistics of Impact of FIRST Robotics Programs

The infographic below is a summary of the impact of the FIRST program from the FIRST Longitudinal Studies (FIRSTinspires.org, Dec. 2017):

The infographic below is a summary of the impact of the FIRST program from nine FIRST STEM Equity Community Innovation Grants in 2017. (FIRSTInspires.org, 2017)

Source: FIRST Impact Infographic (FIRSTInspires.org, Jan. 2017)