Volunteering

FIRST® Robotics

FIRST® Robotics is a nonprofit educational, competition based, robotics organization for students K-12. There are three programs (FLL, FTC, and FRC) that have varrying age levels, robot construction rules, and game challenges. Every year/season FIRST® reveals a new set of challenges and teams must spend the next 2-6 months designing, building, and programming their robots to bring to competition. Teams will compete in a head to head format to score as many points as possible in 2.5 minute matches. Through FIRST® students build real world skills that held prepare them for the work force where they can take on the world of STEM.

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Programs I Volunteer With!
  • FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC)
    • Ages 12-18
    • Students design, build, and program 18" x 18" x 18" robots (~the size of a microwave)
    • Season timeline: September - February
    • ✦ I participated in this program as a student for 5 years! ✦
  • FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC)
    • Ages 14-18
    • Students design, build, and program robots upwards of 125 lbs and 3ft tall
    • Season timeline: January - March
  • FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL)
    • Ages 9-14
    • Students design, build, and program LEGO® robots
    • Season timeline: August - January
What do I do as a volunteer?

Similar to how FIRST® provides students with a wide selection of roles to take on with their team, there is a wide varaty of volunteer roles!

  • FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC)
    • Referee:
      • Facilitate competitoin matches for 4 teams at a time, 2 teams per alliance.
      • Award points to teams for scoring achievements and penalties for rule infractions.
      • Enforce and explain rules to teams throughout the event, keeping gameplay consitent and fair.
      • Work alongside other referees and field staff to keep the competition fields organized and running on schedule.
      • Ensure students are having a positive and fun experience engaging with STEM!
    • Robot Inspector:
      • Work with teams to go through an inspection checklist to ensure robots are field legal.
      • In the situation where a team does not pass inspection, help come up with a plan for changes to make to become legal.
      • Communicate inspection statuses to field staff as they prepare to run competition matches.
      • Ensure students are having a positive and fun experience engaging with STEM!
  • FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC)
    • Referee:
      • Facilitate competitoin matches for 6 teams at a time, 3 teams per alliance.
      • Award points to teams for scoring achievements and penalties for rule infractions.
      • Enforce and explain rules to teams throughout the event, keeping gameplay consitent and fair.
      • Work alongside other referees and field staff to keep the competition fields organized and running on schedule.
      • Ensure students are having a positive and fun experience engaging with STEM!
  • FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL)
    • Judge:
      • Facilitate 30 minute interviews for 1 team at a time.
      • Interview teams and judge prepared presentations relating to their innovation project, robot design and programming, and team core values.
      • Score teams on rubrics based off of their presentations, questions answered, and work throughout the season.
      • Ensure students are having a positive and fun experience engaging with STEM!
    • Referee:
      • Facilitate competitoin matches for 1 teams at a time.
      • Award points to teams for scoring achievements and penalties for rule infractions.
      • Enforce and explain rules to teams throughout the event, keeping gameplay consitent and fair.
      • Work alongside other referees and field staff to keep the competition fields organized and running on schedule.
      • Ensure students are having a positive and fun experience engaging with STEM!
How much time do I spend volunteering?

After participating in FIRST® for 5 years as a student myself I love to give back to my community as an alumni! I largely acredit FIRST® as the reason I am in the STEM field today. Getting to hopefully give current students a similar experience motivates me to spend a significant portion of my free time at events!

  • FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC)
    • Standard season events: 1 day (7-10 hours)
  • FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC)
    • Standard season events: 2 days (18-24 hours)
  • FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL)
    • Standard season events: 1 day (6-9 hours)
  • FIRST® World Chapionship
    • 5 day event for all three FIRST Robotics programs in Houston, TX
    • Second or third week of april anually
    • Teams from all across the globe come to compete
    • Upwards of 40-50 hours volunteering
  • Offseason Events
    • All three programs have off season events
    • 1-3 day events (8-12 hours per day)
Group photo of refs from World Championship
World Championship Ref Crew- 224 team event
Kate at the field
North Carolina Qualifier Event
Group photo of CRI refs
Chicago Robotics Invitational (CRI) Ref Crew
group photo of NC state field staff
North Carolina State Championship Field Crew

✦ This page live updates from a spreadsheet of my volunteering data! (pretty cool I know) ✦