About

CollegiateFIRST was an idea entertained by current college students on how to make the search easier for incoming, former high school students. Although many attempts at this have been formed, CollegiateFIRST was designed to be the ultimate database and resource for this information.

In 2004, Ball State University student and Team #1020 mentor Amanda Morrison wanted to find a way for college FIRST information to be more clear, more concise, and most of all, in a centralized location. She contacted Clarkson University student and Team #229 mentor Joel Johnson, who designed the website and database. Later, David Kelly, Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis student and Team #234 mentor, jumped on board and helped out with support for the website and server space.

Because of the amount of teams, colleges, and scholarships from FIRST programs internationally, CollegiateFIRST was a bit swamped with information. Team #71 from Hammond, Indiana heard about the database and decided to offer to help input the required info and to maintain it for the first few years of existence. They did this by researching every team's information in every state and country, and finding the database info within the entries the team leaders submitted for the TIMS system through FIRST.

Colleges and universities involved in the FIRST program are growing every year. CollegiateFIRST is the initiative to keep track of college involvement in this program, as this information is not collected and connected together completely. This will aid students looking to research their college decision, while also providing background on the FIRST aspect of their college education. FIRST shouldn't end at the high school level, and engineering and technological education shouldn't end in the classroom.

Almost a year in the making, CollegiateFIRST will soon be the most informative, all-in-one resource for FIRST teams and students around the globe.