Join us on Friday, April 27 for a meet-up at the Detroit Championship!

More information to come!

Join us on Thursday, April 19 anytime from 11:30 – 12:30 in GRB Convention Center, Room 330B! Meet other members of LGBTQ+ of FIRST and engage in interesting and insightful discussion!

Learn more about our event attendance from our spreadsheet!

(pictured on far right)

Aryn T. | Alumni | Team: 4982 | Pansexual | 2016 – Present

Why did you get involved with FIRST?

I joined my team in 2014, our rookie year, and have been involved ever since! We went to worlds on Rookie All-Star and I fell in love with the environment and the community and can’t imagine leaving it.

Why did you join LGBTQ+ of FIRST?

I joined LGBTQ+ of FIRST after noticing a lack of diversity within the community, and where there was diversity, a lack of acceptance. I wanted to create an opening and welcoming environment for any person to be accepted and acknowledged.

What are you most looking forward to this competition season?

I get to meet countless friends this season, from all over the world. My experiences with the FIRST community have been so positive and I’m so excited to meet the people who have made my time in FIRST so great!

Learn more about our event attendance from our spreadsheet!

Val | Senior  | Pansexual | 2017 – Present

What is your favorite experience with LGBTQ+ of FIRST?

This might be more of a collection of experiences, but I’ve always loved the late night karaoke sessions we’ve had on the Discord server. Even though people always seem stressed from school or work, we sometimes have these karaoke sessions that just go on for hours with songs from hit musicals, cartoons, and competition. While we sometimes only know each other as a group of names, pictures, and words, karaoke and conversation bring a feeling of togetherness, an organic display of who we are behind carefully curated collection of thoughts we control within our keyboards. It’s a reminder to me that there’s always someone there for support.

What are you most looking forward to this competition season?

I’ll be doing game announcing training at New York City Regional, but I’m super excited to see how strategy varies between different regions. I haven’t had too much of an opportunity to focus in on regional variants of strategy in the past, so I’m hoping we get to see the game evolve into different branches.

What is one cool thing you’ve learned lately?

I recently learned how to make origami cranes in my Japanese class, as we’ve been working on a 千羽鶴(Senbazuru) to send to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The process of making origami is very soothing, and papercraft in general is very comforting.