Mentor Vs Student Built

2012 marks my 8th year of FRC involvement. I was only an FRC student for one year, my senior year in 2005. Back then, I was hesitant to post on Chief Delphi. I viewed it as a forum in which only the most well respected people posted in. I would see Paul Copioli, Andy Baker, JVN and Karthik posting and I would say to myself (and I still fell this way to an extent today) What else is there for me to say? Of my 740 CD posts, 500 of them have been since 2009. My hesitance to post in my early FRC days were mostly due to respect and a little bit of intimidation.

I think we can all agree that the internet has changed and CD hasn't been immune. I think most people fail to grasp the gravity of what they say on the Internet and how it may change the way people look at them. CD makes that a little bit worse because in many cases you're not representing yourself as much as your team.

While I think the student built vs mentor built argument will never go away, I can relate to both sides of it. In 2005, we built one of the worst robots our team had ever made. It was discouraging. Then you see a team like 67 in 2005 win; 2 Regionals, 1 Regional Chairman's Award, 1 Divisional Championship, a World Championship and the Championship Chairman's Award all in the same year. Part of you asks, 'How much the students do?" I was naive. I was angry that a team could have so much success when we were so bad. But I wasn't looking at it the right way. It's not anger, it's passion. It's fuel. It's drive. It's inspiration. Team 67 was my first experience witnessing a powerhouse team do what they do best. Inspire. I know now that 67 has a ton of student involvement, as much as my own team, and they remain one of the teams I look up to the most.

I honestly believe that there is not a single team in FIRST that is "Mentor Built." I think that term is a derogatory, blanket term used to put down teams that some people in FRC are too jealous and angry at to see the inspiration those teams provide. I've seen the term applied to 67,148, 217, 254, 1114 and most recently 175 . An identical list to one titled 'Teams I'm most Inspired By.'

I think that though one team (In this case 175) has to be thrown under the bus, overall these attacks are beneficial. It shows us that our job isn't over. There are still people out there that aren't getting the message. We need to continue to show them the inspiration these teams provide, the amazing students and mentors that run these teams and how much of a loss it would be if the "mentor built" term ever changed the way these inspirational teams operate.

-Justin

@jmontois340