Volunteers Needed: ASME Mentors Help Students Learn Skills and Earn $$$ FIRST!

Do you like to build, or better yet, take stuff apart? Tinker with tools? How about work with kids? Become a FIRST mentor, coach or judge! Find out how by checking out ASME's FIRST Community of Practice!

The ASME Guide to FIRST and Universities details the success of engineering programs around the country using FIRST in ways that increase corporate partnerships, attract scholarship money, create recruitment opportunities, and provide curriculum enhancement. Institutions profiled include Northeastern University, San Jose State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Is there a regional competition in your area? Event volunteers can act as competition referees, robot traffic directors, and technical assistants, among many other roles. If you are interested in volunteering at a FRC regional, you may do so by registering in the web based FIRST Volunteer Information and Matching System (VIMS). Simply go to the FIRST website, www.usfirst.org, click on the For Volunteers tab, then on the Click Here to Volunteer for a FIRST Robotics Competition Event button which brings you to VIMS. If you have any questions, please contact Marina Stenos at stenosm@asme.org.

Ten bright high school seniors were each awarded $5,000 scholarships at the recent FIRST National Championships, in Atlanta, Ga.! ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers) awarded the scholarships to high school seniors active on FIRST teams, who are nominated by ASME members, ASME Auxiliary members, or student members who are also active with FIRST. These awards are for the first year of study (non-renewable) in an accredited mechanical engineering or mechanical engineering technology program.

Congratulations to our 2008 recipients!

• Elizabeth V. Alexander, Mass. Academy of Math & Science, Worcester, MA - Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Hahna R. Alexander, Ithaca High School, Ithaca, NY - Carnegie Mellon University
• Kevin J. Fuhr, Cypress Creek High School, Orlando, FL - Cornell University
• Emily P. Griffen, Villa Maria Academy, Exton, PA - Carnegie Mellon University
• Bao-Nhat Nguyen, North Quincy High School, Quincy, MA - Brown University
• Kenan L. Paulus, St. Mark's High School, Elkton, MD - University of Dayton
• Alessandro Sambvani, Cimarron Memorial High School, Las Vegas, NV - Stanford University
• Timothy W. Samson, Kell High School, Acworth, GA - Mercer University
• Alex David Trainer, Jupiter Community Senior High School, Jupiter, FL - Florida Institute of Technology
• Ricky Wilson, Oxford Area High School, Oxford, PA - Pennsylvania State University
   
  

(For more details on the 2008 ASME Foundation-ASME Auxilary FIRST Clarke Scholarships visit: ASME News. Do you know worthy students who will be graduating from high school next year? Help out their team and click here to nominate them for an ASME Foundation-ASME Auxilary FIRST Clarke Scholarship!)