Melissa Samuels of ErgoFactor and Emily Tietjen of NEW Water join co-hosts Ann Franz of the Northeast Wisconsin Manufacturing Alliance and Kate Bruns of Insight on this week’s episode of the NEW Manufacturing Insights podcast to talk about their volunteer work with Brown County FIRST Robotics.
The program, which teaches K-12 students skills including collaborative problem solving and technical fluency for future careers in fields like engineering and manufacturing, is an exciting competition-style program centered around trademarked values including Gracious Professionalism™ and Coopertition™, Tietjen shares on the podcast, adding that the competitions are as exciting as any sport.
“It was the most incredible energy and most inspiring atmosphere I’d ever been in,” Tietjen recounts on the show of her first experience with FIRST, which inspired her to become involved with the board.
All Brown County youth are encouraged to participate, regardless of any financial barriers, and Tietjen tells Franz and Bruns the organization’s biggest need is probably more volunteer mentors with technical expertise, as well as business support. Learn more and sign up to volunteer at browncountyfirstrobotics.org.
Samuels says the program absolutely prepares students for real-world careers.
“I always say the one thing I’ve learned really strongly through FIRST is how to embrace failing,” Samuels shares on the episode, which is NEW Manufacturing Insights’ last of 2025. “Our kids learn that their first iteration of a robot may not work, and how do they then need to problem-solve through that?”
Listen for more insights from this innovative nonprofit on NEW Manufacturing Insights, which is hosted by and available for download and streaming on Spreaker. New episodes of the podcast, which is produced by Alex Thomas of Woodward Community Media, are released on Thursdays, though the show will be taking a holiday break until Jan. 8. All 104 previous episodes, including today’s, are available on demand anywhere you get audio podcasts, including Apple, Google, Spotify and other platforms.
