Naval Internship & Career Opportunities

On October 22, 2022, representatives from NAVAIR, NAVFAC and NAVSEA joined Velma Lomax with FIRST California to discuss intern success stories and exciting internship and career opportunities with the Navy.

Below, please find valuable resources offered during the FIRST California Career Chat.

• Summary of Summer Internships and Scholarships/Fellowships – NOTE: The SEAP program is for High School students.
• Program Flyers for SMART and NREIP
• Naval Horizons Essay Contest (deadline 11/28/22) – $200 prize for up to 5000 winners!
• Replay Video of the presentation
• Slide Deck of the presentation

Summary of Opportunities

Program Flyers

Naval STEM Overview

Grants for FRC and FTC teams!

The PG&E Corporation Foundation and Patti Poppe’s (PG&E Corporation CEO) family foundation, DreamMakers Fund, are graciously sponsoring FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition teams in Northern California and all of their service areas for the 2022-23 FIRST season! Their program support also includes sponsorship of FTC and FRC competitions and events across Northern California.

Below is Patti Poppe’s sponsorship announcement during the FIRST Robotics Competition Silicon Valley Regional earlier this year.

If your team is interested in applying for PG&E team funding, for the 2022-23 FIRST season, one of the team’s two lead Coach/Mentors must complete the application by deadlines listed below.

Application open to FTC & FRC teams in the PG&E service areas that meet at least one of the PG&E funding priorities.

• PG&E employee mentored team
• Title I school 
• Over 50% under-represented team members (Female, Non-Binary, Black/African American, Hispanic, Native American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Students with Disabilities)
• Public school

Application Deadlines:

FTC 
9/30/22 – Priority
10/28/22 – Final

FRC
10/26/22 – Final

Outreach Opportunity at the Aerospace Valley Air Show!

Edwards Air Force Base, FIRST California, and Aerospace Valley Robotics are sponsoring an opportunity for FIRST Robotics Teams to participate in the 2022 Aerospace Valley Air Show on October 14,15, &16th.

The Aerospace Valley Air Show is an entirely new event dedicated to showcasing the best of STEM and aviation.  It’s an Air Show, STEM Expo and Open House all in one!

The weekend consists of:

• the Largest USAF STEM Expo In History with nearly 60 hands-on displays and activities
• a large air show headlined by the USAF Thunderbirds Flight Demonstration Team
• the first open house for the base in 13 years.

Participation Details:

• Each team participating will be provided a 10×10 booth for the robot and outreach material.  Your team will have the opportunity to reach out to over 100,000 people.  Many business and potential sponsors will be in attendance during the 3-day event.  
• You will be required to bring a robot and do demonstrations along with other teams at all levels FLL, FTC, and FRC.  Demonstrations will be held from 10am to 3pm daily.  We are asking for teams to be there all three days.

Basic Logistics:  

• October 13:  The big items will have to be brought on base on Thursday October 13th.  There is NO ability to drive up to the hangar any other day. 
• October 14,15,&16:  Teams will have to staff their booths and be ready to give demonstrations starting at 10AM.  
• FTC field and LEGO tables will be available, but game elements will have to be provided.
• FRC carpet and a wooden hub and hangar will be available for demonstrations.  Teams are asked to bring their own cargo.

There is no cost to register, participate or attend. 

We are hoping that the Southern California teams will step up and represent FIRST, their community, and their team!  For more information please contact FIRST Senior Mentor David Voracek.

Four California FIRST teams -Team Spyder 1622, MSET Fish 649, MSET Cuttlefish 6165, and Eagle Engineering 1138 – traveled to Washington, DC where they joined more robotics students from across the nation to advocate for increased federal STEM funding during the 9th annual National Advocacy Conference (NAC) June 26th – June 28th.

The conference, presented by the Student Association for STEM Advocacy, helps develop student advocates to expand access to STEM opportunities. SASA founder and president, Frank Ferrari, had this to say about the conference: “The impact these students have on shaping our future is real! The relationships the teams develop impacts how our elected officials vote on important STEM issues as we attempt to make STEM accessible to everyone!”

Students and Mentors were prepared for meetings with their Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill with:

• a walk through of the basics of advocacy while focusing on how to build and leverage relationships with elected officials to advance STEM programs
• hands-on and practical introduction on what skills are needed to be an effective advocate for STEM at the local, state, and federal levels.
• education about ESSA and Title IV-A, and USICA
• coaching and live role plays to help them talk to their Members of Congress
• time to get together in advocacy groups, by state, to practice speaking to Senator’s and Congress representatives.

By the end of the conference, our California FIRST teams were ready to put their practice into action and had meetings with the following Senators and Representatives:

• United States Senator Alex Padilla – California
• United States Senator Dianne Feinstein – California
• United States Representative Sara Jacobs, 53^rd District – California
• United States Representative Darrell Issa, 50^th District – California
• United States Representative Mike Levin, 49^th District – California

During their meetings with these Congress Members and their staff, teams urged lawmakers to increase funding for grants used for STEM engagement activities, including raising funding for grants in Title IV-A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to the authorized level of $1.6 billion and supporting the NSF grants in the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA).

Team Spyder member, Brendan Aeria said, “Participating in the National Advocacy Conference has made a huge impact on me, because it has taught me a lot that I would have never known about our government, and how I can be active and push for policies that I believe in, such as robotics funding. I gained a lot of confidence in my everyday conversations and especially with future public speaking by advocating to elected officials and their staff.

By the end of the conference, team members gained valuable real-life skills and saw first-hand how advocating as a group can create great impact.

Robotics California Advocacy Coalition begins.

On July 20, 2022, California robotics teams that attended the NAC 2022 gathered together via Zoom across the state to organize unified robotics and STEAM advocacy efforts with MSET Fish and Team Spyder leading the way with five founding members of this coalition, namely FRC 649, FRC/VEX 1138, FRC/FTC 1622, FRC 6165 & FTC 12675. 

They will be working with local and California government through policy legislation, to influence, and advocate to legislature in the state Senate and Assembly. If you are interested in becoming a part of the Robotics California Advocacy Coalition and upcoming events, indicate your interest via their sign up form.