It’s here! We’ve finally landed at our home away from home – Brown University in Providence, RI! The Team and Fellows came by car, train, plane, and, even UHaul to spend the next five weeks at Training Camp. We can’t wait to give the Fellows the chance to explore everything the “Creative Capital” (and one of VFA’s original 5 cities!) has to offer.
Day 1 was a whirlwind. After a welcome message from Andrew and the VFA Team, we revealed the Fellows’ teams and dove into our first challenge, where they had the chance to quickly get to know one another and work together during the “Smart People Should Build Things…with Legos” Challenge. How would you like to try copying a lego structure from memory?
From words of wisdom to pop culture references, here are a few of our favorite quotes:
“We don’t just want to exist in the world – we want to improve it.”
“You will all become job fountains.”
And, of course, an X-men reference that only half of us understood.
We topped off the day with our Welcome Dinner (and a projection of the World Cup, of course), where the Fellows, team, and some special visitors from one of our biggest supporters, UBS, came together to celebrate the kick-off of our third annual Training Camp. Portugal’s last-second goal against the United States only dampened the mood slightly– with over a hundred new faces from the Class of 2014, it was a great chance for some of the team and Fellows to get to know one another.
Over the next 5 weeks, our new Fellows will hear from expert trainers, work through team challenges, and develop the skills they need to hit the ground running in August at their companies. After five weeks of late nights, hard work, and fast friends, the Fellows will be in fighting shape to tackle any challenge startup life throws at them.
We’ll be sharing weekly updates, posts from Fellows, and more, or you can check back anytime to see #VFABootcamp in real time!
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