About FIRST

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is a multinational, nonprofit organization that teams professionals and students to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The objective of FIRST is to inspire students to pursue areas such as math, science, engineering, and technology to be fun and educational. FIRST was founded by Dean Kamen in 1989 and has been adding leagues since then.

This organization is for people of all ages. FIRST has four different leagues: FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), FIRST Lego League (FLL), and Junior FIRST Lego League (JFLL). Competitions for the different leagues are held around the world, in countries as far as Brazil and Israel.

Each year, teams have the opportunity to attend the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia and compete against other teams from around the world. FIRST is founded on partnerships with businesses, educational institutions and the United States Government. Many Fortune 500 companies provide funding through donations and volunteers to support this intense program. Participants within the FIRST organization can receive scholarships from colleges to help pursue careers in technical fields.

The focus of FIRST is not winning the competition, but instead on gracious professionalism. Gracious professionalism is a philosophy to strive to act like the way we would want others to act. FIRST is a career modeling, life changing experience.

For more information about FIRST, visit the official FIRST website at www.usfirst.org.