Hi to our participating Teams and All Volunteers,
Please liberally and broadly share this email with your parents, students, friends, co-workers and acquaintances in and outside of the FIRST robotics community
Happy upcoming Holidays! We are looking forward to the start of our competition season which commences in Lancaster on the first weekend in December. We also wish our FIRST family a safe and joyous holiday season as we prepare for the festivities of Thanksgiving Day, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Years.
On the topic of the Lancaster Qualifier, we continue to seek volunteers for Saturday the 6th open to all roles, a couple more Judges (adult only) but especially Queues and Field Reset, volunteer positions that can be filled by student volunteers. If you have youngsters or siblings that want to participate and be in the middle of the action, these are roles perfectly suited for them. We also could accommodate a few more Dean’s List Interviewers and Reviewers. See details below.
Also, please reference our email blast #14 for detailed information on volunteering for all PA FTC Events this season. Without an adequate number of volunteers, we cannot suitably and successfully hold our events. Thank you for your consideration.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/email-archive/20337
REMINDER – Dean’s List – The deadline for all teams to nominate students is December 15th, 2025, at 11:59pm Eastern time.
To recognize the leadership and dedication of FIRST’s most outstanding secondary school students, the Kamen family sponsors an award for selected tenth and eleventh grade students known as the FIRST® Robotics Competition and FIRST® Tech Challenge Dean’s List. For more information:
https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/deans-list
Nominate your students TODAY!
Mentors/coaches must review the Dean’s List Nomination Guide prior to making their Dean’s List nomination. Nominations must be made using the Team Registration System.
Dean’s List Interview Only Event:
Every region will have a “Dean’s List Interview Only” event associated with that region. Coaches must select this event in the dropdown when they are submitting the Dean’s List nomination.
Pennsylvania Dean’s List Interviews will be conducted remotely primarily on Sat and Sun, January 24th and 25th, 2026 and will be scheduled and executed through the FTC Scoring System. If other days or times are needed to accommodate Interview Judges and Students, we will schedule accordingly.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events/2025-2026-season/deans-list-interviews
Each team may nominate up to 2 students per team who would then become Semi-Finalist in PA. This season, PA will advance four (4) PA Finalists to FIRST for consideration at the FTC Championship in Houston, TX.
Special Note: Dean’s List nominations must be made by a coach or mentor who is NOT related to the student nominee. The mentor, who is not related to either of the students, should gather the required information for the student team member to complete the submission form and essays, however, only Lead coach 1 or 2, or by a role called “Dean’ List Award Submitter” can officially submit the nomination through the Dean’s List system. The mentor who may be designated as the “Dean’s List Award Submitter” for a FIRST team is a specific role created in the team’s dashboard to handle the submission of the award application.
In instances when a student’s parent(s) is listed as the lead coach 1 and 2, but the non-relative coach/mentor is writing the nomination, FIRST Tech Challenge has required that the non-relative mentor or coaches name be added to the end of the nomination essay.
Dean’s List Interviewers and Reviewers:
We are actively accepting volunteer applicants for Dean’s List Interviewers who ideally would not be related to any of the student candidates or have a team associated with conflict of interest. If interested, please volunteer through your FIRST Inspires login and search for the FIRST Tech Challenge Dean’s List event in Pennsylvania.
Please contact us at any time if you have any questions
ftc@pennfirst.org or Tom Zawislak at (302) 383-9925.
Pennsylvania FIRST® Robotics
FIRST Tech Challenge® Program Delivery Partner
phone: (302) 383-9925
email: ftc@pennfirst.org
Website: www.FTCPenn.org