GEARED UP Mentor Conference

DCI Robotics' team mission is to foster a diverse community of excellence in STEM. While on-field excellence is hard to always achieve, positive team culture is largely within the control of mentors. Learn how to take specific, concrete actions to build a sustainable, positive culture that is welcoming to all students. This will directly contribute to on-field success and ties directly into awards. Led by Shane Donavan of DC International School and coach for FRC 4821 and FTC 14315 and 18264, whose teams have won the FRC DCMP Team Spirit Award, FRC Sustainability Award, FRC Gracious Professionalism Award, FRC Engineering Inspiration Award, and the FTC Sustainability Award in the last two years.

Your team already has a brand—whether you've worked on it or not. In this honest and energizing session, Jen Kerns explores how mentors can help students define, refine, and elevate how their team is seen by schools, sponsors, and the broader community. Learn how to connect visual identity, mission, and messaging into something authentic and memorable. Whether you're a rookie or a regional powerhouse, your brand deserves more than clipart and a catchy pun.

Team culture isn’t a “nice to have” – it’s a strategic lever that shapes goals like retention, performance, and creativity. Pulling from the field of Positive Organizational Psychology, this session offers a framework for identifying what your team needs and choosing practices that fit your context.

“Embracing the Kaizen” shows how small, daily improvements can transform a FIRST team. Kaizen means continuous, incremental growth—focusing on getting a little better every day. Leon Pryor has used this approach to build strong teams from minimal resources, turning consistent small wins in design, culture, and process into major long-term success.

A session on student mental health awareness for mentors — recognizing signs of burnout and stress in students, creating psychologically safe team cultures, and knowing when and how to escalate concerns. Mentors are often the frontline for student wellbeing and this session aims to equip them with the tools to prevent issues where possible and get their students help when needed.

A discussion of how mentors retain themselves and avoid burnout, drawing on the wider community conversation about why mentor roles can feel like a second unpaid job. Practical tools and peer perspectives for sustaining a long-term commitment to a team.