A Month in Danbury.

January 2009 Junior Bootcampers in NYCBeing one of the two Healthcare representatives in a class of 26, I remained determined to get as much out of my time in Danbury as the classes before us.

This bootcamp was one with many firsts.

We were the first class without binders, and were instead given all of the materials electronically.

Although our backs were saved the toils of lugging the tome to class each day, the use of computers inevitably lead some minds to wander.  Through a few late nights for us, as well as our technical instructors: Dan and Adam Jensen, we succeeded in creating six distinctly different solutions to the business problem we were assigned.

Finally, we were the first class to have a ping-pong table. Trivial as that may sound, it quickly became the central meeting location for a majority of the downtime spent outside the classroom.

These past four weeks, we made the Danbury plaza our home away from home. The 26 of us spent all of our days together in the same room, cultivating strong friendships, a diverse network, and many memories. We celebrated the Chinese New Year and gained a bit of culture.

We watched the Superbowl in strong American fashion and even got Greg Druckman, the IMLP bootcamp program manager, involved in a game of football that made its way through much of the hotel's lobby. We traveled when we could, sending groups to Boston, New York City, the Catskill Mountains, and even Atlantic City. Everyone had a story and pictures to be shared when they got back.

This was truly an experience that not only prepared us for our careers at GE, but also prepared us to be world citizens and expanded our borders beyond our individual countries and businesses.

In an ever-shrinking world, it's a comfort to know that we're never more than an email or Sametime message away. Although some of us may not see each other over the next year, I know we're all anticipating an awesome reunion at senior bootcamp.