Hi, I was in the same situation two years ago as you are in now. I was interested in robotics, but nothing was available. So instead I founded a robotics club at my highschool. I was also interested in FIRST, (as well as everyone else in the robotics club) and tried my best to get my schools support for it, but there were no teachers available to help
. Hopefully you will have better luck.
Other than computer science (programming) and computer engineering, there are no other courses available for me to take regarding robot building at my school...other than a tech design class...but I feel thats a little of a waste when there are a million tutorials on CAD softwares online. If you really plan on pursuing robotics, you may want to take a construction course so you can have access to a work shop...or ask if you can use your schools workshop after school sometimes (that is, if your school does have a workshop
)...
Apart from begin introduced to robotics with the LEGO Mindstorm NXT in gr. 11 comp. eng., I also built the $50 robot, as found on this site. The $50 robot tutorial is a perfect introduction to robotics.
I say go for it, get a FIRST team started if you can, if not, host a robotics club. Or just study robotics yourself. Perhaps try out the Arduino, or Admin's Axon.
Although I warn you on something. If you do start a robotics club, keep it small and containing self-motivated individuals who are willing to put the time and effort into building their own robots, or be prepared to teach everyone else how to build robots from the ground up. From my experience hosting the club last year, we started out with around 13 people...which dwindled down to 6 over the course of a couple months...but thats probably because we have a "club joining day" at my highschool...and alot of the grade 9/10's just join every club for the hell of it...but then get scared away when they discover they will actually have to do some thinking to make a robot ^^. Also, I highly recommend you get as much funding from your school as you can...
Good luck!