End of Orientation

So Orientation is over! Classes start Tuesday next week and we already have homework assignments!

The rest of Orientation was a blast. The Warren Center did in fact help my team to bond. We had a great day working through the physical challenges together and having a great time while doing so. To cap the day off, we had a raft building challenge with our entire ocean. The goal was to build a raft (using 4 - 55 gallon plastic barrels, 8 - 10ft 2x4's, 2 long pieces of rope and 4 short pieces of rope) that would transport three of your teammates across a stretch of open water to a dock where you had to drop off a flag and then return to the beach. We had an hour to complete all of the tasks (including disassembly of the raft) and trying to gain as many points as possible for our ocean (as we were competing against the other oceans). My team kicked some butt. We built a raft that was solid as a rock (a floating rock, I guess) that we were able to get to and from the dock in less than 4 minutes. We were the first team to have our boat on the water and from there we just started racking up the points. We made it to the dock and back 5 times...then we lent our raft out to two other teams who were both able to make it to the dock and back and then we also carried some other teams' flags out to the dock! Definitely a great experience for all, but I think that we had the most fun.

The rest of Orientation was spent practicing with a Nike case study and hearing from different professors about Leadership and the Law and the Beer Game (a supply chain management game that exhibits the "bull whip effect" in almost every case. A lot of fun and a lot of new faces all around campus. I'm looking forward to and dreading Tuesday all at the same time because at that time we'll also have all the 2nd years back on campus so we'll have over 700 students packed into the spaces that the 47 LFM's filled this summer all by ourselves. It is going to be pretty crowded!

On another note, I am feeling pretty confident that I will get into the Systems Dynamics class - which is great as Prof. Sterman gave another lecture after the Beer Game that was equally great to the first time that I heard him at InterviewFest. Can't wait to see the rest of his lectures in class! I did not however get the opportunity to be one of the two MIT students working with the Nokia project. Two other LFM students did though and I am very happy for them to have the opportunity. I'll just be able to look around for something else to do with my time (which is not going to be an issue. There are far too many great opportunities available to us - it is very overwhelming.

Well, I am going to head out for the evening. Take care and more later....