Adventures of a Dean's List Finalist

I woke up this morning experiencing a weird mixture of "Oh no it's time to get up" and "Yay St. Louis!". Between the weekend of the North Carolina Regional and now my excitement for the Championship has been slowly, but surely, growing.  I became a Dean's List Finalist the first weekend of April, definitely one of the more shocking moments of my FIRST life.  I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend the Championship event in St. Louis even though my team itself did not qualify for the event.

After flying into St. Louis this morning,  my parents and I walked over to the Edward Jones Dome to check out the event.  Even just walking towards the Dome, it was easy to tell that there was a FIRST event in town.  Colorful t-shirts,  crazy hats and teens sporting safety glasses were everywhere.   Passing teams on the street, I could hear snatches of conversations about robots, the venue and their team's chances against the competition.

Finally, we arrived the entrance of the Dome and were greeted by this sign:

As per instructions, I headed straight towards pit administration to check in as a Dean's List Finalist.  Along with an incredibly nice welcome from the volunteers, I was given this:

 Only in FIRST would receiving a button mean so much (:


After checking in with pit admin, I really had nothing specific I had to do.  Honestly, being at a FIRST event without a team is incredibly weird.  Most of the time at tournaments everyone's schedules are full from interviews, social events and, of course, robot runs.  Being without a team, I was free to walk around  the entire pit area, including all the sponsor booths, college row and, my absolute favorite, the FIRST Lego League pit area.

As most people know, I got my start in FIRST through FLL when I was 10.  I also had the opportunity to go to FIRST Championships while on an FLL team when I was 13.  I remembering being so amazed by all of the teams there and at the "big kids" who were part of FRC.  Being able to go back and visit the next generation of FIRST students is an awesome opportunity that makes me realize how fantastic this program really is.  You can experience many things walking around the FLL section of Championships. For example:

A team from Japan can ask you to attach a paper flower to a tree to help decorate their pit area:

Or you can see a bunch of bicycles that a team from the Netherlands is donating to a conservation organization in St. Louis:

Or, if you're extremely lucky, you could run into Dean Kamen talking to a team while surrounded by people taking pictures:

Obviously, I had a great time talking to kids and seeing all sorts of amazing things (:

I spent the rest of the day walking around the pit areas and watching a few matches inside the Edward Jones Dome.  It was awesome.  And, as if my day couldn't get any better, I met Buzz Lightyear.  It was cool.

Tomorrow is the official Dean's List Ceremony where the 10 winners of the Dean's List Award will be revealed.  While I personally have no great expectations for the award, I'm incredibly excitement to meet and talk to Dean and Woodie as well as all the other finalists from around the United States.

Another blog post will be up tomorrow!

-Annalise