Perspectives on FIRST

FIRST has had a profound impact on its members. Below you can read a few personal tales of how participation in FIRST and on Team 696 have affected some of our graduates.

Antonella Wilby

Antonella Wilby, 2009 Graduate

"I joined Clark's robotics team simply because I wanted to have fun building cool robots. However, what I found upon entering the world of FIRST was that a realm of opportunites for personal growth had been opened up to me, and not all of them were focused on science and engineering. Any FIRST team is, in my opinion, a microcosm of an organization in the greater working world. A student will not only learn about operating a drill press, but about working with different personalities, meeting deadlines, and being an effective leader.

"And in order to be a well-rounded team, many people from many different backgrounds must work together for a common purpose. Any student can find his or her niche. An artist, a programmer, a cinematographer, a mechanic, an animator, a designer...they can all find a place to explore their hobbies and intensify their passions on a FIRST team. What I thought was a club for people who liked to tinker with robotic toys turned out to be an outlet for students with all sorts of interests to exercise their minds.

"In my four years on Team 696, I worked as a part of many fine teams that produced many fine robots. But in FIRST, it's not about the robot. It's about the journey, and what you learn along the way."



Angie Wang

Angie Wang, 2008 Graduate

"At the start of my freshman year, I was well aware that Clark had a robotics team, but I knew next to nothing about it until Josh, a rookie at that time, so enthusiastically spoke of it one day during (or maybe it was after) 7th period Spanish class. As someone who was attending a public high school for the first time, completely oblivious to the existence of after-school club activities and the impact they would have on college applications (word of advice - join clubs because you're truly interested in them, not because they look good on applications; enthusiasm and passion for what you do really are important in college admissions), I couldn't imagine the impact that joining Team 696 would have. I have always liked science and technology, but, as the saying goes, applying what you have learned inside a high school classroom to real-world problems (or in this case, the problem of designing a robot in 6 weeks to successfully meet the competition objectives) comes with so many benefits. After all, you won't be spending the rest of your life memorizing physics formulas or robotically reciting trigonometric identities (though I must say that having your basic trig identities memorized is extremely helpful if you plan on majoring in any kind of physical science, engineering, or math). Instead, using a sine or cosine lookup table, you might be writing some Assembly code to control a robot's drive motors; or you might be using some basic physics formula to approximate the motion of a quantum particle (okay, so it's not quite that simple). FIRST gives you this opportunity. It also teaches you the very essentials of systems engineering; it teaches you how to be a pragmatic problem solver and a team player..."  Read More



Glory Sikka

Glory Sikka, 2007 Graduate

"I joined robotics because I wanted to take part in a life-changing experience. My brother inspired me to join Clark’s Circuit Breakers. He made it look like an excellent program, which it is. Even in the short time that I have been in the Circuit Breakers, I have learned enough mechanical engineering and programming to give me a head start in my anticipated career of programming."



Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee, 2006 Graduate

"At FIRST Robotics competitions — though some can disagree with me — it’s not all about winning; however, I believe it is about having fun, learning to work together as a team, and learning about gracious professionalism. I, personally, have learned so many things needed in society: how to work with other people, how to come up with the best strategy for a given situation and an important lesson of 'measure twice, cut once.'"



Andrew Abraham

Andrew Abraham, 2005 Graduate

"The experience I gained through robotics has been invaluable. This program is the closest anyone can be to the industry without having a career in it. It has taught me the values of hard work, professionalism, and persistence. I plan on pursuing a career in mechanical engineering and, through the robotics program, I am ahead of the majority in achieving my goal."