FIRST LEGO League World Festival NJ Young Volunteers – Part 2

Amongst hundreds of volunteers at the World Festival each year, there is a group of young people who are just as dedicated to contribute as the adults.  Many are middle school students and FIRST LEGO League (FLL) alumni, working as the field resetters, team queuers, judges’ assistants or the stand-in team.  Two of such young volunteers from New Jersey were at the 2010 FLL World Festival in Atlanta recently.  Their journey and reflection are featured in parts here. We welcome other FIRST young volunteers to contribute their stories and experiences.

~ By Karlin Yeh  ~

Two years ago, in 2008, I attended the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival in Atlanta with my rookie team, Landroids.  I was a good foot shorter in height and a lot more nervous.

This year, our team was nominated but not selected as a core values team to go to the 2010 World Festival again, I found that now I really wanted to go back to Atlanta.  My opportunity came when my parents took time off to volunteer at the World Festival, I quickly signed up to join them.  In the last three seasons with FLL, I have learned so much, I wanted to give back to the FLL community.  For me, being a World Festival volunteer meant lack of sleep since I was multi-tasking several different responsibilities between FLL and FTC, but it was also a lot of fun, well worth of skipping school.

Besides as the official FLL team queuer and the one-person FLL robot stand-in team at the World Festival this year, I was also a fill-in FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) hardware inspector, and a young  mentor of a high school FTC team Lancers, who is also attending the World Festival.  Previously at the State level, I had volunteered as a FLL and FTC field resetter and FTC software inspector. I had also conducted FLL programming and training sessions with my teammates in the last two summers. It’s gratifying and worth all the preparation effort to inspire other new FLL enthusiasts. All of these volunteering experiences gave me opportunities meet new people, learn new skills and different design ideas, which prepare me for the future competitions.

One of the important rewards from volunteering, I think, is the friends you make.  At these competitions, you meet people from all over the state, country, or even the world.  Not surprisingly, many veteran FLL members of my age were also volunteers at the World Festival.  Each volunteer, young or old, is about as crazy and enthusiastic about FIRST as the next.  They gave up their vacation or free time, self funded to organize and help out at these events to ensure everything runs smoothly.  Most people probably don’t even notice how hard these volunteers worked behind the scene until you are one of them.  You learn to work together quickly, and develop a friendship and respect that last a long time.

Besides being a volunteer at the World Festival this year, I was also privileged to have an unofficial robot round opposite this season’s Georgia State Champion who was also volunteering at the World Festival.  Behind the black curtain after the FLL competition was over, we had a mock competition complete with a referee! I don’t remember who scored what but we got to exchanged contact info and talked about programming obstacles we faced.  It was very nice and special to have no stress and just sharing ideas with the best minds.

Volunteering is the basis of FIRST no matter where in the world.  Ordinary people sacrifice their own time and money to organize and run these events to make all the teams have a good time.  Whether it was inspecting robots, hosting a seminar, or just helping out a local event, the volunteering effort was well worth it and I’ve have gained so much from these experiences.