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Kick-Off is Coming!
We hope your teams are looking forward to the “Rebuilt” season…Kick-Off is only days away, and the Impact deadline is coming up fast behind it!
This is the second post in our “4 ways to make Impact powerful” series, and hopefully will provide some practical advice on improving your submission that you can apply to your work.
Powerful Impact #2: Be Storytellers
Reviewing Impact Submissions have shown us the great things done by FIRST teams. So many teams are truly changing their cultures and communities around the world.
But what turns great work into a powerful submission?
The Stories.
There are many Impact teams talking about truly great results. However, to be powerful at Impact you need to tell the story of your team, what it does and why it matters. This last element is neglected in many of the submissions we review! As a result, they come across only as a summary of activities. Granted, they’re still often very impressive – but they miss the personal aspects that tell the story of your team’s impact.
Part 1: Teams are very good at stating what they do. Not so good at explaining why it matters.
Your submission should be conveying “impact”: which includes the personal, measurable, and realistic (and on that last one, remember that mentioning failures makes your submission MORE powerful, not less). It’s way more than a shopping list of outreach activities.
For a practical example, here is some text modified from a previous version of a 5985 essay:
The 5985 Teaching Program is built around LEGO robotics classes run year-round. The scale astounds – every week: 760+km of travel, 220+ students, 12 locations and 36 hours in 15 classes! 42 global online classes and holiday workshops reach 399+ extra students annually. A PB class has run every school day since 2015, reaching 8,684 Australian students.
Many teams would be happy to stop there! It’s a description of impressive numbers and sustained team effort. However, the impact is missing, and the submission is weaker because of this.
A better version would be:
An open door is an invitation. Such is the 5985 Teaching Program: team-run LEGO robotics classes, accessible to anyone and inspiring love of STEM year-round. The scale astounds – EVERY WEEK: 760+km of travel, 220+ students, 12 locations and 36 hours in 15 classes! 42 global online classes and holiday workshops reach 399+ extra students annually. A 5985 class has run every school day since 2015.
Reaching 8,684 Australian students, the Teaching Program changes lives – elevating robotics to formal therapy, vocational training, and a lifeline for the lost. It makes STEM accessible in WOL: students with disabilities attending every class. STEM-minded children are engaged early, inspired to explore FIRST, then venture into FRC. Powerful bonds form as students become teammates, then teachers – a path taken by 80% of 5985.
This version provides the same numbers, and the full impact. Breaking it into two paragraphs makes it easier to read.
Please note: This is one of the major 5985 programs, and worth the inclusion of an extra paragraph. For a simpler program, the same effect could be achieved just by adding some extra sentences into existing paragraphs.
The same approach can be used in the Presentation – where you have a lot more leeway to pass on the “personal” aspect of things. For example, the following lines come from the 2025 Impact Presentation, talking about the “Unlimited” program:
1: Then with the Flagstaff group, we ran robotics as Vocational Training and Life Skills for adults with disabilities
2: Meet Jen! She started her first class with: “I’m 61, I have a disability, and I’m not good with computers”. She showed off her robots, delighting in “cool grandma” status.
3: There’s no University or STEM career for these students…But there’s no culture change if they’re left behind.
Instead of just listing schools, companies and attendees, the presenters took the time to cover the personal story, as well as spelling out the power and meaning of the program.
That then leads us to the opposite problem:
Part 2: Teams make claims without backing them up with facts.
Essentially, they tell a “fairytale” – all fluff and no crunch. Take this section from one of 5985’s first submissions:
The Project Bucephalus vision sees that communities respond when opportunities are created. This is true everywhere 5985 has worked, but is particularly relevant in Wollongong, the birthplace of 5985. Originally a city centred around steelmaking and mining, the team have been at the forefront of the effort to change the city focus from steelworks to STEM. Students from Wollongong and elsewhere engage in 5985 programs with enthusiasm regardless of age, gender, location or socio-economic status. This allows students to pursue their STEM aspirations through FIRST, even through Year 12 and university, with the team ensuring that 5985 alumni are supported and encouraged to become mentors. There is nothing passive about the team’s approach: opportunities are actively manufactured to offer chances for growth to those with untapped potential, changing lives.
It sounds great (particularly that lofty last sentence), but offers no proof or context. Compare this to a similar section from the 2025 Essay:
Wollongong is transformed. The Teaching Program has revolutionised accessible STEM education. Unlimited, Unified, Unleashed and Unstoppable realise unimagined futures. FIRST is wide open to Special Education. 5985 members with disabilities don’t just attend classes – they lead each one! The results are profound: 51% of students in mainstream 5985 classes have disabilities (vs 16.8% in Wollongong). 100% of Unstoppable alumni graduate to mainstream school or TAFE! Recognised by all levels of government, 5985 works with 3 tertiary institutions, 10 disability support providers, 21 schools and countless teachers and families: changing and saving lives across the City. This isn’t just a benchmark, this is PB’s STEM revolution brought to the world
It’s not just the essay either! Many Executive Summary answers contain lines that make claims without substance. This leads us to a vital piece of advice: Avoid trying to tell stories in 500 characters. (More on this in Post #3, coming soon!)
To make a powerful submission, mix facts with impact, and don’t forget the power of personal stories.
The Final Advice:
Go through your submission and identify each claim you make. Then:
- Don’t claim anything that you can’t prove, or hasn’t happened yet.
- Make sure that each claim contains proof (preferably backed up in the document register). The absence of statistics or a quote is a red flag.
- Check for claims that have facts but no impact. The power of your work should be on display.
We’ll see you soon with Post #3!