Since 1996, we have over 250 students graduate as Killer Bee alumni. Read some of their stories on how FIRST has impacted them:
• I plan on writing something like this for girlsgofirst when I get around to it. While FIRST introduced me to engineering first-hand (pun intended) it is what helped me to confirm that I really did not want to be an engineer. As much as I love robots and power tools I could never be an engineer and instead sent me towards the journalism path- which working on chairman’s/pr stuff helped me with. FIRST gave me several life long friends, and created a second family. It also taught me that being a minority isn’t a bad thing and that I often prefer to be part of the minority.
• I have met countless friends I will remember forever. Whenever I see someone in a FIRST shirt at school it has made a good conversation point.
• In all the interviews I have had for internships, one of the best experiences I have had to talk about was FIRST. Two of the interviews I have gotten were specifically because I was on the Killer Bees.
• FIRST helped inspire me to pursue engineering and helped me get involved in my high school in a way that combined several aspects of life that I enjoy: math, science, and sports. FIRST influenced my life in a similar way that a varsity athlete is influenced by his or her sport.
• FIRST completely affected my life. It changed my intended career path from pre-dent to my current enrollment in the college of engineering. This is completely thanks to the program, and more so the people involved in FIRST robotics. Additionally, my best friends from high school were involved with robotics, and we are still best friends to this day. I continue to meet FIRST alumni out in the university setting and it is amazing how much better off FIRST alumni are at the simple tasks of intro to engineering class, such as programming NXT robots in LabView.
• Career wise, it looks great on my resume and I have had incredible practice with machining, CAD, and designing parts. My skills have helped me design projects both mechanically and electrically. I have also joined the IEEE and help people by teaching them machining skills (recently acquired a new bandsaw!) and electrical skills like soldering and breadboard designing. I plan on joining the FIRST and/or robotics enterprise next semester and am looking forward to it. Recently, I was allowed access to the mechanical department’s machine and woodworking shop and they were amazed at the machining skills I learned in robotics back in high school. I have put to use the welding skills that Isaac taught me.
• When I first came to college I made a lot of friends, most of them which had previously been on other Michigan teams. It was really fun meeting new people based on the same interests and ultimately becoming close friends with them. I am still friends with a lot of people on team 33, which I still talk to on facebook. I do miss them and a lot of people from NDP.
• Robotics was a 360* life changing experience and I consider joining one of the best decisions in my life. I am glad I decided to be an engineer as it has taken my best skills and amplified them. I love going to my classes knowing that I chose something I will be comfortable doing for the rest of my life.
• Robotics made me who I am and I am glad I joined. I also want to help mentor the team one day.
• Being a Killer Bee is one of my favorite memories from high school. I had many great friends in it and learned a lot about science, building things that shoot balls, etc. The skills learned in FIRST continue to be useful ie- I will forever remember when building something that triangles are stronger than squares!
• Awesome experience to work with the engineers and build the robot at Chrysler!
• It provided clarity for my educational and career path. The immersion into science and technology was great especially at the high school level.
• FIRST was the reason I found out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life.
• Because of my experience in FIRST and mentoring high school students, I decided to return to school to earn my certificate in teaching secondary education. I have made countless friends through this program and gained many opportunities for networking. I’m an English Language Arts kind of person, but I’ve discovered a love of STEM and robotics. I’m definitely a FIRSTer for life.
• The Killer Bees helped me become a leader. I am currently a resident mentor working in the dorms at MSU. I work to create a community where students feel welcome and safe. FIRST helped me become a student leader in my community and strive to make all people feel comfortable. I also meet people all over campus that recognize my Killer Bees swag. I am so popular! Those other FIRST kids love us bees.
• Many Favorable memories. overloading my senior year with 5 AP classes and robotics build and tourneys was nuts, it gave a new appreciation for wayyyy to freaking busy but it made pulling all nighters in college easy and shows you what you can do when you have alot to do and a very limited time to do it!
• FIRST has been one of the best experiences of my life. It provided me with amazing opportunities that I would never have gotten otherwise. For example, I made presentations in front of numerous CEOs of major companies in order to gain funding for the team. I also learned many skills that I have been using in college. Although I do not plan on majoring in anything science related, FIRST has opened my eyes to the difficulties and novelties of science and technology. Most importantly, however, FIRST has provided me with many contacts for the future as well as friends that I will never forget.
• I was a very quiet student in high school, and FIRST allowed me to be a leader. I was asked to be a Co- Captain for Avondale as a senior by Mrs. Virginia Taylor years ago. She was not only my teacher, but at FIRST she became my mentor and was the adult at school that I looked to when I needed help/guidance. I looked up to her and was so happy to see her at a school board meeting a few years ago. She and the other mentors (e.g. Jim, Justin, Tim, Pam, Chet, Milan, and many more) encouraged me. I have now managed hundreds of people all over the state of Michigan, and I can honestly say that the skills I obtained while being a Killer Bee have been tremendously beneficial.
• I appreciate the friendships that I formed on the team and with people from all over the country.
• FIRST is an amazing opportunity, and can influence the rest of your life.
• I learned a lot from all the people who dedicated their time to helping us compete. I use many of the skills that I acquired in the bot cave on a daily basis. Some of the best hands on technical training a person could get.
• I worked with the PR group when I was on the Killer Bees. I created the yearbook and wrote the information for the different awards. I had fun, but I knew I wasn’t going into a technical field when I joined the team. I was only on the team my senior year, they were in need of girls for the team and my math teacher said it would look good on my resume and college apps. I did become close with some people on the team and we are still in contact now. My favorite memory from being on the team was when we were at nationals in Atlanta, GA and we got to explore on our own at night. We had some good times on that trip! I did work as a LEGO league mentor after I graduated high school which is something I wouldn’t have done if I didn’t have the FIRST team experiences.
• Gave me the opportunity to realize what skills would develop into a career path
• It was an awesome source of engineering experience, it was a ton of fun, and I did make great friends, both on our team and on others.
• Through FIRST, and the Killer Bees, I discovered my love of engineering. Being around other people, especially the mentors (Jim, Tim, Chet, and Isaac, among all the others), with such a contagious passion and enthusiasm for engineering, I got hooked quick. Because of FIRST I decided to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering, and hope to one day get into mechanical design in the bio-medical industry. FIRST and the Bees opened me up to a future, and a career that I would not really have known to pursue otherwise
• FIRST taught how to solve real world problems with the skills I learned in the classroom. FIRST is still one of the most impressive and unique items I have on my resume.
• I would not have been successful in my career without FIRST. In labor relations it helped me to successfully communicate with the union because I actually understood their job duties and the tools they were using. As a scientific recruiter I utilized my the knowledge developed at FIRST and built on in school to recruit engineers, chemists, IT, Computer Engineers, and Chemical mixers, etc. I would not have had the knowledge base and tools to be successful in my career without my FIRST experience.
• FIRST opened my eyes to the field of math, science, and technology and the role women play in such fields. It FIRST impacted my decision to pursue this field of study
• Engineering wasn’t on my radar at all prior to FIRST, so there is no question that it shaped my career direction. Aside from that though, I gained a lot of confidence because of FIRST and learned that I was capable of doing so many things I had never imagined.
• I absolutely loved FIRST. I was on the robot building team and had so many wonderful experiences with both the students and the engineers who volunteered their time. FIRST gave me a confidence in my ability to succeed when challenged. I didn’t necessarily go into a science related career, but it did help me to know I was heading towards a career, rather than a job; I knew that I was competent (I built robots at Chrysler’s Tech Center, I could do anything!), and I really think that FIRST was a part of that. Some of the engineers that really impacted me were Jim, Chet, Pam, Tim, and another gentleman who brought us to the Viper Pit, but I’m forgetting his name! Thanks so much for their time volunteering, it really meant a lot. Good luck to Team 33 in future competitions! Wish I was closer and could somehow give back to the program, but I am living in North Dakota!
• The FIRST experience has always been in the back of my mind– and I always think very fondly of the times we had. Teamwork, leadership, and organizational skills are not the only things that I learned along the way. A group of teachers, mentors and students working on a task together sounds easy enough, right? However, it took tremendous effort, time and energy, and the determination and hard work that this collaboration required carried me through college and beyond.
• FIRST allowed me to make (so far) life-long friends and helped me to become even more certain about what I liked doing and why.
• My FIRST experiences help me become a more out going person.
• It helped me learn about the marketing aspect of a team and company. I enjoyed when I got to work on the different projects and creativity of how to stand out when there are tons of competition that are able to do the same thing, but that year not as well 🙂
• For four years of my life, FRC WAS my life. I met great people from across the country/continent, shared late nights and great experiences with some of my best friends in the world, and learned how to use stuff to make things! I always enjoyed robotics and engineering, but FIRST was unbelievable and unlike anything I had done before or have done since. I’m happy to say that I’m still close friends with not only my former teammates but also all of the incredible mentors we had. I think that is the most valuable part of this program; the tight relationships that are formed by putting a whole bunch of punks in an insanely demanding yet energizing situation and forcing them to work together to do something incredible. I will never forget the time I spent with the Bees, and I hope to be able to come back and pay it forward soon.
• It was a great experience. My career direction was already set but it did confirm that I was heading down the path that was best for me.
• In retrospect, I’d say my career path actually mirrors my time with FIRST rather faithfully. No, I’m not an engineer by trade (nor was I during my stint with the team), but I regularly write about engineering or products that have been extensively engineered. And, much like I did when preparing submissions for the Woodie Flowers Award or our team website, my goal continues to be finding the human back story behind a product’s creation. FIRST showed me very early on that although there may be a chief engineer, a chief designer, and so on, there’s a team of tens; of hundreds; of thousands working in the background to make the impossible possible. It’s this very human story I strive to present as often as possible — though I must say, many corporations strive to make this more than difficult!
• My FIRST experience has come to affect me more now than ever before. First off, it taught me a sense of organization and how to keep it cool in a situation of controlled chaos. It also taught me how to manage my time and how to get things done in very small amounts of time. The team aspect of it is what is really affecting me now. I am on my school’s culinary competition team, and the teamwork taught to me in FIRST is now invaluable. Being able to trust my teammates and be in high pressure situations with them is something I would have never known without my FIRST experience. It also taught me to act and speak with professionalism when dealing with adults and judges in the field.
• Gave me insight into Engineering which helped sway my decision to start on an Engineering career path.
• The Killer Bee experience taught me it was ok to fail and that there is not one answer to any given problem. This has helped to instill a mindset that has gotten me to where I am today.
• The biggest way that first affected my life would be the learning experience with working as a team and the lasting friendships that I obtained during first.