Even on the other side of the planet, FIRST is changing lives. Today, FIRST is inspiring thousands of Chinese kids on thousands of teams. FIRST works for even our most economically challenged students – kids like Jason Wren, who comes from a very destitute area. Through FIRST, Jason learned the value of hard work and won entrance to the very competitive Tsinghua University. He even got to meet Dean Kamen and is now headed to medical school.

The Chinese government has continued to expand FIRST, so we now have over 3,000 FIRST teams in all four programs. Last year, President Xi Jinping attended a joint meeting of the Chinese, U.S., and English Academies of Science and Engineering, remarking, "Robotics will become an entry point, an impetus for growth of the third industrial revolution. This will influence the landscape of the global manufacturing industry and China may become the largest robotics market in the world."