FIRST Robotics has had a tremendous impact on our student participants. Students are able to learn how to build a complete robot, work with engineers, learn the importance of teamwork, and learn the skills necessary to succeed in life. It is not unheard of to hear stories about students on the brink of dropping out of high school actually excelling in school because of our FIRST Robotics program. Here are a few testimonies that can attest to the impact that FIRST has on them:

"The robotics team opened a world of opportunities to me. Instead of walking the door of opportunity I ran through it with confidence that I built through the FIRST robotics program.” -Thomas Vu Pham, Alumni Class of '05

"I really had a great time! I'm so proud of our robot. I think considering the conditions we built it in, it is amazing. Mr. Mainieri told me he was proud of me and that meant a lot. Just hearing that reassured me of everything I've done afterschool for the past 6 weeks. Everything was worth it! -Ana Colio, Senior Class of '07

"I will never forget all the things I've learned from the FIRST Robotics program. This program was an avenue for me to develop my leadership, as I was an officer for the team's first three years. I learned how to delegate and put together a newsletter. I learned that I could successfully plan competitions and even big fundraising events. I learned how to build a robot in six weeks! That's really hard. I came into this program four years ago as a rather shy, young girl and am coming out of it as a confident WOMAN." -Hue Le, Alumni Class of '05

"This volunteer activity has made the biggest impact in my life. My Lego mentorship is of great importance because it was an activity that actually had a connection to my life. Robotics is something that I am very passionate about; by mentoring a Lego robotics team, I was able to show younger students what I love to do. As a result of the mentoring, I wish that my mentorship with the students has had a lasting impact on their lives and has hopefully influenced them at an early age to pursue engineering themselves." -Vu Hong, Alumni Class of '06

"There were no more Preuss teams left. We were now going to compete against the UCSD students! I felt like I was going to faint. There were T.V. Stations filming us now. Our first college competitors had an arm that swung out and its strategy was to get our balls so that we couldn't score. When the match started their arm swung out and was stuck on our side, so all we had to do now was score one ball. We did it!!! We beat our first college team!!! We were so happy that we had such a great opportunity to participate in this competition through The Preuss School Robotics Club." -Christina Khavarian, junior Class of '08