Awards Level 3 - Award Program Management

Learning Objective

Lead the team's award-pursuit strategy across the other judged awards (Quality, Excellence in Engineering, Innovation in Control, Team Spirit, Gracious Professionalism, Rookie/Rising All-Star, and similar) -- deciding which awards to target each season, keeping the shared judges' binder current across multiple submissions, and running mock pit interviews grounded in the real Split Judging/Split Awards Model. This module deliberately does not re-own the Impact Award (Business Level 3's capstone) or the Leadership Award nomination (Leadership Level 4) -- coordinate with those leads rather than duplicating their work. This level typically takes a full season and centers on a capstone project reviewed and signed off by a mentor -- this is where students move from following an award plan to owning the team's overall award portfolio.

Prerequisites

• Awards Level 2 - Award Strategy & Documentation
• Project Management Level 2 - Team Coordination
• Leadership Level 2 - Team Leadership

Primary Resources

• FIRST: Judge Manual
• LYNK Library of Knowledge: Business (Awards and Judging)

Tasks

1. Award Portfolio Management

   • Manage multiple award submissions across the season (excluding Impact and Leadership, owned elsewhere)
   • Coordinate submission timelines
   • Lead documentation teams
   • Track which awards were targeted, submitted, and won

2. Documentation Systems

   • Maintain the team's judges' binder across multiple award categories
   • Develop a digital archive of past submissions and materials
   • Implement data management systems
   • Design review processes

3. Interview Excellence

   • Create interview strategies grounded in the real Split Judging/Split Awards Model
   • Develop presentation teams
   • Lead mock interviews
   • Design feedback systems

4. Team Development

   • Train award team members
   • Create mentoring programs
   • Capstone project: independently coordinate the team's full-season award-pursuit strategy across multiple judged awards (excluding Impact/Leadership), reviewed and signed off by a mentor
   • Document best practices

Level 3 Completion Requirements

• Mentor-reviewed capstone: independently coordinated award-pursuit strategy across multiple judged awards for a full season
• Successfully manage the team's judges' binder across multiple submissions
• Lead effective mock interviews grounded in the real judging format
• Coordinate with the Business and Leadership award leads without duplicating their work

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