Update on the Remote Control Car

We have a working car!  

After some wonderful design work and underestimating the amount of time it would take to assemble, we now have a car that can drive and turn left*.  I even have proof, watch the quick video below to see it in action. The race is on Monday and I will update with the results then!

* It can do a lot more things but turning left is about the extent of my remote control skills.

Fall Festivities and Midterms

First - I need to start off with a few celebrations:

1. Midterms are done! Five tests including what will probably be the hardest test while I am here at MIT over two weeks and they are done!  
2. Resume done! The deadline for completing the resume for internships was a few weeks ago and it was a lot more work and stress than I expected trying to get everything interesting on to one page. 
3. Royals won the World Series!  (Apparently I have had this blog in draft state for a while)

Now that I am done celebrating...One of our goals this summer was to do something outside every weekend to take advantage of the weather before the winter takes over our lives.

Why I chose LGO

It is well into the business school application cycle for this year, today is LGO Ambassador Day, and the LGO application date just over a month away.  So it seems like a good time in the life of this blog to share why I decided on the Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program.

Hands on learning = Playing with toys

Action learning classes are big at MIT.  I am not taking one this semester but I do get to do "hands on learning" in some of my other classes.

For my Manufacturing Processes (2.810) class, we are on teams and the final project is to build a remote controlled (RC) car using the manufacturing processes we learn during class. As practice for this we have to assemble an RC car from a kit as a team.  I was glad to be on an team with six other LGOs, which all but guaranteed we would be a "high functioning" team and not fall apart arguing about wheel color (apparently that happens to teams every year).

The hardest part about being on an LGO team, is finding time to meet.  The only time that we could find to meet was over dinner.  And if we were going to meet in the evening, we wanted to make the most of it.  So we met at the Muddy Charles (campus bar).  The awesome thing was the environment.  The downside, was bad lighting.  Who would have thought that a bar that sells beer for $1.50 would not have good lighting :).  Using our phones as flashlights and Chipotle as our energy source, we put together our RC Grasshopper car in about the amount of time we estimated. Estimating the time correctly was an unexpected surprise, but the real miracle was that we didn't lose a single part.

Is it fall already? Can we add a few more hours into the day?

Now that school has started and the temperature has started to drop, I have a constant case of FOMO.  My inbox is full of emails about different clubs, intramural sports, social events, company presentations, team meetings, and then classes.  Then there is me in the middle trying to find a balance between involvement and personal life.

The first week of classes Sloan hosts Club Pitch and Fest where all the student clubs are on display for an evening and students can ask questions and sign up.  The main thing I learned that there are a lot of clubs!  So far I have committed to volleyball club (free and no required time commitment) and then tentatively joined SWIM (Sloan Women in Management) and Happy Belly club (yum).  The rest is still TBD for the clubs as I figure out how I can stretch the number of hours in a day.

The Elusive Moose - A labor day adventure

Since The Bucket List came out about 8 years ago, I have been working on my own bucket list.  It is a varied and occasionally ambitious list and my goal for the weekend was to cross one of my favorite line items off, see a moose.  

For the moose hunt, I headed to Vermont with a few other LGOs and SOs for a labor day weekend adventure.  

The whole group on top of the mountain at sunset

Summer Reflections

It has been a summer like never before.  New places, new people, and new stories.  Monday it is back to reality when Sloan orientation starts and the LGO bubble will be popped as we join the full Sloan population.  Thinking back over the summer there was so much that happened.  Since my thoughts tend to come in bullet points with numbers, I tried to summarize the summer that way.

Summer School

Unlike most MBA programs where classes start in the fall after a summer of traveling or still working, the LGO program starts classes the first week of June.

When Life's a Beach

I have heard that 50% of the US population lives within 50 miles of the coast.  There were certainly no coastline in Kansas so for the first time in my life I am one of them.  It is wonderful.

We had a three day weekend in July so Sandy coordinated all of us to head up to Manchester-by-the-sea for a day of fun in the sun.  In addition to just sun, sand, and water, we also have a classmate (Jordan) with enough beach game to host a children's camp.  Since we are basically children, it was perfect.  We played volleyball until the sand burnt the bottoms of our feet.  Turns out we have some players in the class.  One of my main skills in volleyball used to be my height (5'8" when I was 13), compared to the guys I am a shrimp who can't jump.  It was a blast.

LGO Summer Teams

The day before classes started we got an innocent looking email that would impact the rest of our summer... our summer teams.  Together the five of us are responsible for group problem sets, group case write ups, group final projects ... you get the picture.  Well to give you a better visual of my group, here we are, Team 7!

Team 7 taking our formal, informal picture

Welcome to Cambridge

I was ready for a change.  After living in Kansas for 26 years, I was ready for the next adventure. 

Two months ago I left my job, my family, and large apartment (I could fit a bed into my closet) to go back to school.  My fiancé and I drove from Kansas to Cambridge, MA so that I could attend MIT through the Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) program.  Over two full years I will work towards my MBA at Sloan and an MS Engineering Systems.