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Amanda “Mandy” Turner, a junior at Wren High School and member of both FTC311 – the Fembots, and FRC415-RoBoCRAFT was selected as FIRST Dean’s list FINALIST at the FIRST Robotics Palmetto Regional Tournament. 114 students of the approximately 58,000+ involved with FIRST Robotics Competition will be selected as finalists this year. All FIRST Dean’s List Finalists will be considered for the FIRST Dean’s List at the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis using the nomination essay provided by the team mentor. Ten (10) students will be selected as the FIRST Dean’s List Award Winners for the 2012 FRC season.

According to usfirst.org, in an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding FRC students, the Kamen family sponsors an award for selected top students, aka FIRST superstars, known as the FIRST Dean’s List. Similar to the very prestigious National Merit Scholarship Award winners, there are three (3) “categories” of FIRST Dean’s List Award students:

1. FIRST Dean’s List Semi-Finalists (the group of two (2) students nominated by each FRC team);

2. FIRST Dean’s List Finalists comprised of the two (2) students selected at each regional; six (6) students selected at the Michigan FRC State Championship; and four (4) selected at the Mid-Atlantic Robotics FRC Region Championship;

3. FIRST Dean’s List Winners (10 students selected from the FIRST Dean’s List Finalists by the Dean’s List Committee at the FRC Championship).

The students who earn FIRST Dean’s List Award status as either a Semi-Finalist, Finalist, or Winner will not only be great examples of student leaders who have led their teams and communities to increased awareness for FIRST and its mission all while achieving personal technical expertise and accomplishment, but it is FIRST’s intention that they will continue on, post-award, as great leaders of FIRST’s ever growing student alumni and as advocates of FIRST.

Mandy is a member of the Beta Club, National Honor Society, two (2) ACTC robotics teams, Anderson Junior Leadership and is currently working on developing a high school chapter of Society of Women Engineers. She is an involved member of the student body at WHS, having established a chapter of Redefining Beautiful, her church youth group and her community as well as devoting nearly 30 hours per week to the FIRS Tech Challenge team she leads, the Fembots and the FIRST Robotics team that she is a member of, RoBoCRAFT.