It doesn't seem very long ago, but from our "birth" four years ago to now, we've come so far and learned so much! Starting with the dream of a unique three-way partnership formed with the nebulous goal of participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition, we have grown into a tightly integrated "family" working toward many common goals with the ideals of FIRST at the center. Our progress has amazed us and our successes have served to reward and energize everyone.

Four years ago, when demand for engineers was at an all-time high, IBM was looking for new and unique ways to encourage students to enter the engineering fields. At the same time, they recognized that partnering with a leading engineering university would provide a level of synergy and flow that it couldn't achieve on its own. IBM approached North Carolina State University (NCSU) about the FIRST program and gained their enthusiastic support. Together, they approached Southeast Raleigh High School (SRHS), a math, science and technology magnet school with a diverse population, and the partnership was formed.

Looking back, it is amazing how little we all knew about FIRST and how much it would come to mean. Like most new families, we were naïve about how formidable the challenges we would face were and even more naïve about what our FIRST was really all about. We were excited, motivated, invincible... and young. Armed with the energy of youth, the word "can't" wasn't in our vocabulary. We had great dreams of sweeping the competition, especially hoping to nab the Chairman's Award, without even really knowing what it was!

Our family was formed. There was the steering committee that consisted of faculty members from SRHS, engineers and executives from IBM, our school principal and a parent representative. The school team consisted of 45 students, divided into four deployment teams, marketing, robotics, animation and program management. The remainder of the team was undergraduate NCSU students, professors and engineers from IBM who would lend their expertise in robotics and engineering to our efforts. The focus of our team was for the students to be intimately involved in all aspects of the organization. Our steering committee believed that students had to be involved in order to be truly inspired and so the SRHS students were given a great deal of responsibility and ownership. For instance, each student was given a $500 personal fundraising goal regardless of what deployment team they were on. They relied heavily on the advice of the professionals, but ultimately the high school students were responsible for tasks such as robot design and construction as well the development of our team logo and mascot for marketing purposes.

We met during the fall, including taking classes on the weekend at NCSU to learn about mechanics, electronics and pneumatics. Then there was the kickoff. We were so excited! Just as we were getting started learning to get along with our new family members, the unexpected happened. Raleigh, NC was hit with two major winter storms that resulted in the cancellation of half of the robot build time! Of course, we also lost three weeks of precious time in the preparation of our entries in the AutoDesk and Chairman's Award portions of the competition. Some thought that might be the end of our short journey.

Instead, it provided even more excitement and energizing challenges. We quickly found ways to communicate and collaborate even though we were unable to meet face to face. We used electronic communications and conference calls to brainstorm. Some of the members walked or drove when the road improved to alternate meeting places to brainstorm. The parents went above and beyond the call of duty by providing many meals and building and decorating an incredible shipping crate. We made many mistakes that year, but learned many valuable lessons.

To our amazement, we were successful in building and shipping a working robot. We entered the Autodesk Visualization competition with a very strong entry. We also submitted an entry for the Chairman's Award competition without really understanding what we were doing. The school and community were behind us all the way. We obtained press coverage on every major TV station and the local newspaper. At the NASA/VCU regional competition, we made it to the semifinals and received a "Play of the Day" award. The principal, who had made the trip along with many of our parents and the Dean from NCSU, was so proud that he took our picture and posted it on the Internet! Everyone was so excited that the Dean even spray-painted her hair to show her support! We became a showcase for our school's innovative programs and were highlighted at Magnet Fairs and other events to attract students. Not bad for our first year, but now we were beginning to understand that there was more to FIRST than building a robot and going to the competitions. The successes and experiences encouraged us to do more to reach out to others.