When I was in middle school, my 8th-grade teacher asked us a seemingly simple question: “What does an engineer look like?” We drew pictures of what we thought an engineer looks like, and we shared among the class. These drawings all looked similar —an older white man with crazy hair, perhaps wearing a lab coat or holding a drill. Then, she posed a follow-up question:
What makes this person an engineer?
The class did not have an answer. But the goal for the class was not to give an answer to that question, but rather to change its perspective on what constitutes an engineer.
With ChatGPT in our phones and Teslas roaming the streets, it’s evident that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are rapidly growing fields in the United States. By 2033, approximately 11.8 million jobs in STEM will need to be filled. STEM jobs drive innovation in fields such as artificial intelligence, environmental science, and energy.
Annabella Shenoy, a student from Fulton County Schools, says “I think because STEM is such a competitive field in Atlanta if you don’t have the right resources or the right connections that I think that you’re essentially, to put it bluntly, screwed. If you have no way to climb the ladder you’re looking up at the bottom of this pit looking for a way to get out.”
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics was created in 1989 by founder Dean Kamen in order to inspire American students to join the engineering path. At its first competition, 28 teams met to compete in a high school gym, using robots they had designed and built to try to complete tasks faster and more efficiently than their opponents. FIRST has grown to include over 3,500 teams worldwide and hosts its World Championships in one of the largest convention centers in the United States.
FIRST provides resources for students who may not be able to afford other STEM programs. Teams with economic need are awarded grants to support their participation.
FIRST Robotics, in its efforts towards diversity and inclusion, benefits the youth by showing them that they can be engineers too no matter who they are. For example, while many see disability as a limitation, the students at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville view it as a source of possibilities.
In 2020, Team 40635 began mentoring students with disabilities. Since then the students have “been introduced to complicated math concepts and are now well-versed in things like negative numbers, the concept of greater than/less than, and the reasoning behind increasing/decreasing speed of their robot.” This has empowered these students to build robots they may have never thought possible.
Various groups across the United States are less encouraged to go into STEM because of their demographics. Fulton County Schools student Michael Reyes said that “No one in my family who is Mexican has had the opportunity to go into STEM because of where they grew up. You were kind of just encouraged to go into manual labor, but that’s changed a lot especially where I’m growing up because I’ve been able to do hands-on things without requirements with programs like FRC and my engineering classes.”
FIRST Robotics also encourages girls to pursue engineering despite societal discouragement. According to the U.S. Census, women make up a mere 15% of engineers in the United States. In a push for greater gender diversity in STEM, FIRST Robotics has created many all-girl teams, including EVE Robotics headquartered in Atlanta.
Donning their purple varsity jackets, EVE Robotics set off to take the win at the 2020 Dalton Competition. Though they faced adversity, their efforts paid off when they won the Engineering Inspiration Award. These young women are not the only ones to see their lives impacted by the FIRST mission — many teams across the Atlanta metropolitan area seek to empower women through their STEM programs.
Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia hosts Girls FIRST Workshops in order to inspire STEM in middle-school-aged girls. Through STEM activities and guest speakers, these girls are shown how fun STEM can be despite adversity they may face in the field. This shows that a push for inclusion can help girls understand that they are just as capable of being engineers even though they are underrepresented in the field.
Saille Gokhale, a member of First Robotics Competition (FRC) team 1683, said “Seeing women participate and work not just alongside men, but even above them, and being so immersed in the competition gave me a clear view of just how capable we can be if given the opportunity and resources.”
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