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About FIRST
Our Mission, Purpose & Values
FIRST® is the world’s leading youth robotics community, delivering youth robotics competitions that inspire innovation, build confidence, and prepare young people for life. Discover what drives our global movement.
Our Core Values
The FIRST Core Values are fundamental to FIRST and unique to its programs. They emphasize friendly sportsmanship, respect for others’ contributions, teamwork, learning, and community involvement and are part of our commitment to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of unity.
Our community expresses the FIRST philosophies of Gracious Professionalism® and Coopertition® through the FIRST Core Values.
Discovery
We explore new skills and ideas.
Innovation
We use creativity and persistence to solve problems.
Impact
We apply what we learn to improve our world.
Inclusion
We respect each other and embrace our differences.
Teamwork
We are stronger when we work together.
Fun
We enjoy and celebrate what we do!
PHILOSOPHIES & ETHOS
Gracious Professionalism®
Gracious Professionalism® is part of the ethos of FIRST. It's a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community.
Through Gracious Professionalism, fierce competition and mutual gain coexist. Participants compete intensely while treating each other with respect and empathy. There is no trash talking, nor disingenuous platitudes. Knowledge, competition, and empathy blend comfortably.
The term was coined by Dr. Woodie Flowers, (1943-2019) executive advisory board chair emeritus & distinguished advisor to FIRST.
PHILOSOPHIES & ETHOS
Coopertition®
Coopertition® fosters innovation by promoting unqualified kindness and respect in the face of intense competition.
At FIRST, Coopertition means teams help and cooperate with each other, even as they compete. It's about learning from teammates, teaching others, collaborating with mentors, managing, and being managed. Coopertition embodies the spirit of competing while assisting and enabling others whenever possible.
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Special Recognition
FIRST is proud to receive top rankings for consistently executing the organization’s mission in a fiscally responsible way.
Origin of FIRST
Our History
Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST in 1989 to ignite young people’s interest in science and technology. Beginning with FIRST Robotics Competition, the program had an immediate impact on young people through its exciting sports model and ethos. Today, K-12 FIRST programs reach youth participants in more than 100 countries.
