Learning Team Retreat

Well, Pre-term is coming to an end and it has been a success for me. I passed the math exam, waived out of one class by exam (MGEC), and had an incredible amount of fun. The more I hear about MGEC, the more I am happy that I passed the exam, and it proves to me that the SAIS curriculum, though focused on different aspects of economics, did equip me to quickly learn the handful of other topics that Wharton cares about for that class.

I was a little worried about my Cohort until this week, they seemed to be reluctant to bond or spend time with each other, but that problem was solved. We had an incredible bowling session on Monday night after the closing BBQ and then headed off to our Learning Team Retreat.

A nice 3.5 hour bus ride put us in the Catskill Mountains where we met our leadership fellows (the second year mentors for our cohort) and our learning teams (LTs). As a LT we will spend more time with each other in the next 9 months than all of our loved ones. We have two women, four men, two Americans, one Albanian, one Phillippino, one Spaniard, one Indian. It is an incredible bunch of people with VERY different ways of looking at the world.

The joy of this whole process is seeing how the group develops when there is pressure, stress, no rules, no clear hierarchy, no established guidelines, and everyone is insanely busy. We are still in our honeymoon phase, but I am optimistic.

The rest of the LT retreat was a series of activities and challenges to let us see the group dynamics and learn about our different personalities. We also learned about the tradition of "debriefing" every single event to see what we felt and learned from the situation. I found the whole thing incredibly useful, thanks to the work and sacrifice of our Leadership Fellows. I will definitely be applying to work as one next year, but the selection process is pretty intense.

Huntsman was quiet this month, but now all the undergrads are getting to town and the second years are back. We have "case day" on Tuesday, and then the fun really begins.

So, I am off to see the Navy-Temple football game tonight, and then a few days of relaxation before the storm.

Which reminds me, that is what we named our learning team "The Perfect Storm"

Pretty cool huh?

The Craziness continues...

I am having so much fun it is unjust. What an amazing group of people, and they had so much energy they are tiring me out. I finished the math exam, and I am pretty sure I passed. I am now focusing on passing the MGEC waiver exam so I can get out of that class this semester.

The Class of 2009 and Cohort G are still getting to know each other, figuring out where people stand and what kind of person we want to be for the next few years. There were some initial signs of cliquiness, but they are waning as everyone breaks through the initial exhaustion of telling your story seventeen times a day.

Every new person I meet has an amazing story, incredible experience, and is so smart it makes me feel like a lightweight.

Talk about self-starting. We just got here 2 weeks ago and we are already forming a 250-person, 8 person teams, Flip Cup Tournament. If you do not know what Flip Cup is, just do a google search for it. In true B-school style, we are having team names, costumes, rules committees, brackets, and lots of other official stuff.

This two years is going to rock...