Backtrack of sorts to "The Universe Within"

The LGO class of 2013 officially began their time together on Wednesday June 1st when we assembled for our first class "The Universe Within".  This is a week-long module taught by Jon Carroll, who went to MIT for undergrad, studied physics and was on the varsity fencing team (fun facts I found from the MIT alumni dircetory webpage).  His position now is a professor at Sloan focusing on behavior and policy science, specifically with regards to safety.

He's been really nice, enthusiastic and funny and we've done lots of exercises as a class and in our summer teams to understand what makes a good leader, a good team and how we can best work together and listen to each other.  I'm slightly confused as to why this week-long module is called The Universe Within if so much of it has to deal with how you interract with other people, but I'll go with it.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent on campus doing these class and group exercises.  We found out our teams that we'll be working with all summer.  For the class of 2013, there are 50 students, 15 of whom are women, and 8 teams.  I am on Team 7, which has two women and which we've at least temporarily called "Where is Number 7?" because we're a team with only six people on it (only two of the teams have seven members).  I'm happy with my teammates and look forward to finding out how to best work together to conquer the six classes we're taking this summer.

On Friday the 3rd, we woke up extra early and met at Sloan to spend a day out on Thompson Island in Boston Harbor doing Outward Bound activities.  On the island we did group challenges, low ropes course elements and finished the afternoon with challenging ourselves on various higher elements like a climbing wall.  We built trust, confidence and strengthened the abillity to rely on these people we'd known for less than a week.  It was impressive.  We all had the same goals, got to work and did it.  On the way home, we got together for a great photo with Boston harbor and some of the skyline in the background.



A happy LGO class of 2013

The Universe Within module continues through next Tuesday the 7th, and then on Wednesday the 8th, we will meet new professors and begin the classes that will take us through the rest of the summer.