Join Us!

High school students: come join Team 20 for a life-changing, thrilling experience! Learn about science and engineering from professionals, get hands-on with our robot, and compete against teams around the world in the ultimate combination of science and sports! Oh, and colleges love FIRST, too.

You don't have to be a high school student to join the team. Our most devoted members are in fact adult mentors, representing many local companies, including GE and RPI. Mentors bring their expertise and experience to Team 20, giving us the vital technical knowledge and manufacturing connections we need to make a great robot! Mentors aren't limited to just engineers and scientists, either: we need writers, cameramen, financial managers, travel agents (to coordinate our team travels), and many other types of volunteers. If you have a special skill or interest, we could probably use it on Team 20. There's even a special organization for non-engineering mentors on FIRST teams: NEMO , or the Non-Engineering Mentor Organization.

So, if you want to guide our group of bright high school students and help out with a great organization, become a mentor with FIRST and Team 20!

Four ways you can join Team 20 and/or FIRST:

1) Just show up!

2) Find and join your local FIRST team!

3) Volunteer at FIRST competitions!

4) Start your own FIRST team!

Show Up to a Team 20 Meeting

The easiest way to join Team 20 is to show up to our meetings. We will accept new members anytime. We meet in room 132 in Shen High School East. That's in the back hall, in the tech wing. There are meetings every Thursday at 7pm from October to February, and meetings every day during build season. Don't be intimidated by the metalworking and designing that may be taking place when you first walk in, especially during build season (January-February).

Finding a FRC Team near you

Go here to find a team near you. Using this website run by FIRST, you can find local teams by state and access contact information and team websites. With teams in all 50 states, there's bound to be one near you! You can also find FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge - a high school competition with smaller, less expensive robots), FLL (FIRST Lego League - a middle school program), and Jr.FLL (FLL for elementary) teams. All of these teams also could use members and volunteers.

Volunteer at an event

Adults: if you can't mentor a team, volunteer at a FIRST event! Each event has a wide variety of positions that require assistance, from crowd control to judging. For more details, go to the FIRST volunteer center.

Start your own team

If there's no team in your area/school, and you are brave and daring, you may want to start your own FIRST team. Students will need to find a dedicated adult mentor to do this. This is a serious time and effort commitment, but there are many resources to help you along the way. Start here. FIRST offers special "rookie" designation to help new teams, and most other FRC participants will be happy to aid a fledgling team. In addition, there are rookie grants to offset the cost of starting a team.

Nevertheless, creating a FIRST team is a monumental effort that involves a lot of fundraising and organizing. Those who have been through the process will say, though, that the reward of watching a group of high school students and mentors succeed far outweighs the effort required.

Our devoted mentors at Championships in Atlanta

Your new teammates! Don't worry - they're actually quite friendly, once you get to know them.

You could be here! When you put on those zebra stripes, though, take it easy on the team that got you there!

Referee photo from redjar on Flickr, released under CC license.