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APRIL 2022 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 61 the scenes? What other skills are being utilized there? Collins: Our highest award, the Chairman's Award, is all about giving back to your com- munity, spreading the word of FIRST through outreach, but also helping at soup kitchens. It's giving back to both your local community and your FIRST community, neither of which have absolutely anything to do with the robot per- formance. Matties: I'm friends with Dylan and Cardin, two great kids who are both on a FIRST team. It's easy to see this program has tapped into their passions. Collins: We draw a lot of students who might not participate in a sport; we bring them in, and they feel like they're in a sport. At the same time, I've had football players par- ticipate; my daughter's a cheer- leader and she's involved. Because of that sport feel, we combine some groups that typically might not work together. When I was coaching, I always said that every- body on my team can be a varsity player because there are so many different jobs. If you want to con- tribute, you can be a varsity player. Matties: Now, the other work that you're doing is talking to them about possible career paths. ey are the future workforce of America, right? How does FIRST lead them into thoughts of a career path? Collins: Today's students really need to be inno- vators, because many of the jobs they'll have in the future aren't even created yet. We don't even know what those are. When we were younger, maybe you wanted to be a doctor, so you studied medicine. Because the world is changing so much, we teach our students to be innovators, to notice problems, and take action to solve them. ey will be the ones changing technology because they built these skills. Matties: One of the brightest minds in our industry, Happy Holden, was the chief techni- cal officer for Foxconn. He also worked for HP and developed some of the first scientific calcu- lators. In a recent conversation with him about ROBOTICS TEAM SPECIAL REPORT