Insights, Essays, and Talks
Over the years, I've put together a variety of essays and given presentations on topics related to personal growth, FIRST Robotics, mentorship, leadership, and organizational development.
Essays & Other Writing
Kaufman's Sailboat
My thoughts on Scott Barry Kaufman's Sailboat metaphor for personal growth and development.
Rites of Passage
Highlights of relevant anthropological research on rites of passage and how they apply to mentoring & youth development work.
The Growth Spiral
My take on Kazimierz Dąbrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration and how it applies to personal growth and development.
Gardening for Agency
Cultivating, not constructing
The Unilevel Loop of Increasingly Uncomfortable Stagnation
Exploring how people get stuck - and what I think is the key to getting unstuck.
Investing in Young People Through Tech Mentorship
Why I hire high schoolers for IT & software work and why you should consider it, too.
The Last Thing Your Kid Needs Is To Take Another Class
A little something on how highly structured group activities aren't always the best option for kids.
Who Do We Trust?
Reflections on trust, systems, and how we raise our kids.
On Time
A short essay on how I think about time, productivity, and personal growth, and a simple exercise for auditing your time to see where it's going.
A massive wall of text in response to "The Mentor Problem"
My 10-page response to a Chief Delphi thread on FIRST mentor culture & team sustainability.
Talks & Presentations
Psychology and You
A quick tour of a couple ideas from psychology, sociology, and anthropology that describe how people grow & thrive and how these concepts can be applied to our work as mentors.
Mentorship for CS390
As part of a new initiative with the Purdue Computer Science department, I gave a talk on FIRST & why mentoring is important and how it impacts students' lives.
Get Together with GatherPack
A presentation on keeping your program & people organized with GatherPack.
FTC Awards & Judging
A presentation on the FTC awards process, including tips for teams on how to prepare and present their work effectively to judges.
Developing Your Programmers
A short review of how we train programming students on our FTC & FRC teams.
Supporting, Sustaining, and Scaling Your FIRST Program Roundtable
I've led a couple of these roundtable discussions where we've discussed people's concerns for their programs and shared strategies for success.
Mentor Development Roundtable
A discussion focused on mentor experiences, challenges, and best practices to help improve mentorship within FIRST teams.