Program Updates, Deadlines, & Reminders
Scholarship Program Live
The 2025 FIRST® Scholarship Program is now live at www.firstinspires.org/alumni/scholarships - be sure to check back often as new opportunities are posted all the time. Participants and alumni of FIRST programs gain access to education and career discovery opportunities, connections to exclusive scholarships and employers, and a place in the FIRST community for life.
2025 NASA Grant Application (US) The 2024-25 NASA team grant application opened on September 1, 2024 and will be closing on September 30, 2024. The application and more details about the grants can be found at https://robotics.nasa.gov/2024-2025-frc-sponsorship-grants/.
DonorsChoose – New Funding Campaign, Now Available (U.S. only): Through the generous support from 3M, FIRST related DonorsChoose project funding is now available for educators and school employees who meet the requirements. Projects created on DonorsChoose and submitted for consideration will be reviewed to ensure they meet donor intent and partial funding will be allocated accordingly. Learn more about this opportunity!
FIRST Knowledge Articles
Have you seen the new “HELP” button on the FIRST website? If you have questions for FIRST, take a look here before calling. There are several articles that will help you through registering for a team, volunteer questions, pricing and grants and game specific write-ups that might help answer your question fast! But if you do need to contact FIRST...see below.
Extended Team Support Hours (Global)Team Support will have extended customer support available until 8:00 p.m. ET on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays starting September 3, 2024, through October 31, 2024. They can be reached via 1-800-871-8326 or 603-666-3906, extension 0, via Chat and via Email.
Blog Posts
By Collin Fultz, Senior Director, FIRST Robotics Competition, Thursday, August 29, 2024 10:57 AM TL/DR: The MySite shipping fees are changing this year to be variable based on what items the team is receiving in their Kickoff Kit. (And the new radio is in the Season Specific Box.) Read more »
By FIRST Robotics Competition Staff, Friday, September 6, 2024 1:00 PM Over the past few months, we created task forces to look at a variety of topics. This is the first in a series of blog posts that will provide updates on each task force. We’ll start with the Alliance Selection Timing Task Force. This group looked not only at Alliance Selection timing but also ways to improve the team experience. This group was made up of FIRST® Staff, Program Delivery Partners, and Community Members (team mentors and event volunteers). Read more »
Resource of the Week: This week’s resource we are highlighting is the Team Recruitment Flyer. These flyers are editable and can be used as a starting point when creating flyers to recruit new students to the team. The recruitment flyers are available in a Letter Size and a Tabloid Size (file automatically downloads when clicked).
Arizona Specific Updates
New Website Resources
Alumni Association, Bot Breakdown and Tax Credit pages have been added, and events for FLL, FTC and FRC have been added to the Calendar.
AZFirst is trying to expand our resources page on the website - specifically, what companies are hiring your students. Either as summer interns or fulltime employees, let us know!