That's a Wrap! (Second time around)

When I woke up on Wednesday morning, all that stood between me and a long break for the holidays was a final in 15.010 (Economics).  A few hours later, as I handed in the test, I realized that I was half done with the academic portion of LGO.  Since I'll be on my internship during the spring semester, I really only have two semesters left at MIT which is truly hard to believe.  Now that I have some free time and no looming finals, I've been thinking about my experience so far at LGO:

Summer vs. Fall Terms
I definitely feel that the summer was tougher than the fall.  Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't been in a classroom for 5 years or maybe there actually was more work, but it seemed like I was always busy during the summer.  In the fall, there was a lot more downtime and time to do more things outside of school.  Of course this can completely depend on the engineering electives that you choose to take.  My two engineering courses (Logistics Systems and The Airline Industry) were both very interesting but relatively light in terms of workload.  There are definitely classes that can make the fall much tougher than the summer, but I have no regrets about my choices.

The team dynamics were also completely different between my summer and fall teams.  During the summer, we worked on virtually every assignment together, or at least compared solutions to the P-sets.  We saw each other a lot outside of class and got to know each other really well over the summer.  During the fall, there was really only one group project during the entire term (for Organizational Processes) and I didn't see much of my core team at all except for during class and the weekly Communications Lab.  Other LGOs had great core team experiences in the fall, so mine may have been an anomaly. 

LGO within Sloan
We were warned before the fall semester that we would have to actively try to connect with the rest of Sloan, as it is all too easy to stay within the tight community of LGO.  Now that the core term is over, I have mixed opinions how I did with the integration.  I definitely tried to join in on a lot of the Sloan events, including some wonderful dinners through the Happy Belly Club and the NYC trek with the Travel and Hospitality Club.  On the other hand, I definitely spent a lot of time in the LGO lounge and more time outside of class with LGOs than with the rest of Sloan.  The common theme is a group of incredibly smart and talented people and I definitely want to continue to get to know people better.  Something to work on going forward!

Living in Boston
I'm still enjoying my time in Boston, though the recent winter weather is definitely testing that enjoyment.  As the summer turned to fall, the fall colors came out radiantly along the river and the only change that I made was to throw on more layers.  I was still running regularly along the river until about mid-November.  That's when the real cold weather started and I cut back quite a bit with the running.  I have yet to find enough layers that can make a run through 5-degree temperatures comfortable.  We just had our first batch of snow roll through Boston last week and it was fun to trek through it to finals.  Four months from now I may not be so excited, but for now it has a certain mystique to it.

The MIT dome after a snow storm

The Sloan building, after my last final!

The Charles River Trail...a little harder to run on it now!

The sailboats are out of the water until the spring...and the river is frozen.

Cynthia celebrating the first snow.

So what's next?  Well, for the next month I will be living as a nomad.  As I write this blog, I'm sitting in Suburban Maryland, visiting my brother and Cynthia's parents (who happen to live just miles apart from each other).  On Monday I'm headed to Mexico City to meet up with my family for Christmas, followed by another brief stop in Maryland.  Then it's off for the epic LGO Plant Trek!  We've put together an action-packed itinerary for the trek, including stops in Detroit (GM), Portland (Nike), Seattle (Amazon/Boeing), LA (Amazon), Tucson (Raytheon), Austin (Dell), and San Juan, Puerto Rico (Amgen).  This is one of the major highlights of the LGO program and I can't wait for all the adventures!

Itinerary for the next month!

First leg: BOS - BWI yesterday (flying over Manhattan here)

So if you're looking for me over the next month, just look up.  Odds are that I'll be on a plane!

Happy Holidays!

Internships, C-Functions, Movember and more!

Yikes, I just realized that it's been over a month since I last posted anything here.  We've been pretty busy will a whole host of school activities and other adventures!  Some updates:

Internship!
The biggest news is that the off-cycle internships have been announced and I will be going to Sikorsky in Startford, CT to work in a supplier management role.  There is a longstanding debate within LGO about whether to do the internship off-cycle (Feb - Aug) or on-cycle (Jun - Dec).  About 25% of the class does off-cycle and the other 75% does on-cycle.  For me, the decision was mostly driven by an interest in the project (only offered off-cycle) and the fact that it met the requirements for my Aero/Astro engineering requirement.  It is also a follow-on to a previous LGO project, so I'll have a good baseline to start from.  The main difference is that I'll get two fall semesters on campus, while the on-cyclers will get two springs.  That drove a few changes to my course schedule but it didn't have any major impacts on my plan.  The two big benefits of the off-cycle internship are that I can participate in G-Lab next year and also get an extra 3 months to write my thesis!

Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk

C-Functions
We've had several more C-Functions in the last month including Korea, Latin America, and Mexico.  All the clubs have done an excellent job of putting on the events and we've been treated to some amazing performances by our classmates.  One of the Baltic Ocean traditions is that someone always wears a penguin suit.  This month the honor went to LGOs Cynthia and Kara!

Cynthia as the Baltic Penguin at the Korean C-Function

Photo shoot in front of the dome

Kara as the Baltic Penguin at the Latin C-Function

Movember
The month of November brought on Movember and the men (and women) of Sloan teamed up to raise money and awareness for men's health by growing ridiculous facial hair.  So far the "Mustachioed Men of Sloan" have raised more than $14,000!  Ammar had a great series of posts with pictures of the LGO 'staches, so I'll just post a few shots here.

Exploring Boston
The winter weather has arrived, but that doesn't mean an end to the exploring around Boston.  Recent excursions include discovering a third climbing gym in the area, visiting the aquarium, and eating lobster on the waterfront.

Penguin Exhibit at the NE Aquarium

Lobster Feast!

Thanksgiving in Maryland
It turns out that my brother and Cynthia's parents live within a few miles of each other in suburban Maryland, so it worked out to be a perfect destination for a quick trip over Thanksgiving.  We didn't have any travel issues in either direction and had a great time down there.

Thanksgiving Feast

Outfitting my Nephew William with MIT gear

Post-feast hike at Great Falls

10-Mile "Turkey Burn-off" run

Travel and Hospitality Trek to New York City
One of the many benefits of being at Sloan is getting seemingly endless opportunities to learn more about particular industries by doing on-site visits and "treks".  Last Friday we had the opportunity to go down to Connecticut and New York to tour companies in the Travel & Hospitality industry.  We stopped at the world HQ of Starwood Hotels, at lunch ate 'wichcraft in downtown Manhattan, met with the senior marketing team of JetBlue, and got a behind-the-scenes tour of Delta's operations at JFK.  Of course, being an aviation geek, the stops at JetBlue and Delta were most interesting to me.  The JFK tour in particular was like being a kid in a candy store; we got rare access to the Delta ground operations center in the control tower and toured around the new facilities at Terminal 4.

JetBlue HQ in Long Island City

JFK Operations for Delta Airlines - Amazing Place!

Next up is just two more days of classes, and then finals!