FIRST Robotics is an international organization that organizes robotics competitions for students. It aims to prepare students for a future in STEM (read: mostly engineering) by building resilience and teaching technical skills. It's also a really convenient funnel into the military-industrial complex, but honestly what engineering program isn't?

It was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen with only 1 program: the FIRST Robotics Competition (also known as FRC, grades 9-12). FRC remains FIRST's most popular program, though it has expanded and now also hosts the FIRST Tech Challenge (aka FTC, grades 7-12) and the FIRST Lego League (aka FLL, ages 4-16).

Though I personally cannot speak to the quality of FTC and FLL, I was very pleased with my experience on my local FRC team. It was a fun way to bond with like-minded people and learn more about how engineering actually works.