Robotics Community FIRST® Inspires Students to Use STEM Skills for Global Good
Annual competition helps students from around the world develop both STEM and life skills.
Originally published by Parents
Every year, hundreds of thousands of students ages 4-18 from more than 110 countries come together to tackle tough, real-world problems through FIRST®, a global community that helps young people discover their passions for STEM through exciting, hands-on robotics-based challenges. These programs don’t only make kids into STEM whizzes: they help students simultaneously develop their interpersonal, problem-solving and collaboration skills.
“Students of all backgrounds should have access to programs like FIRST,” says Jilei Hou, Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm Technologies. “We all use technology and we all need to understand it to some degree—we need students with these skill sets to help move the world forward in a positive way. FIRST prepares these students for careers in STEM where they’ll have the opportunity to solve some of the biggest challenges we face as a society.”
