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FoundationsOlympicsNot only are we welcoming back the continuing students from all over the world, but this past week and a half, campus has been taken over by a new group of Thunderbirds: the 2012 incoming class! From far and wide, the new incoming class flocked to Glendale for Foundations week and the coveted Foundations Champion title. At the beginning of Foundations, these strangers were thrown together to learn about all of the different aspects to T-bird life. By night, all the students managed to discover an oasis in the middle of this desert: the Thunderbird Pub. Here students came together to meet each other and share each other’s experiences. As Foundations alums know, some of your lifelong friendships are started this Foundations week and this year’s was no different. By the end of the first week, these strangers were no longer strangers they were T-birds.

During the second week of Foundations, the students were immediately thrown into a new project to subject them to the normal lives of T-birds. The MBA’s were briefed on their grueling CEO presentations to be presented at the end of the week. As for the MA/MS students, they were given Dr. Fong’s G-5 Summit project to work on over the week.

Throughout the week, students not only continued with meetings involving the CMC, professor talks regarding RBE courses, and team building activities, but nights were spent with their groups in IBIC researching and preparing their respective presentations.

By the end of the week, though exhausted from the work, everyone made their way to the TEC for one of Thunderbird’s most time-honored traditions: The Thunder Olympics. GE sponsored this year’s Thunder Olympics and involved six games held all over the campus pitting the Foundations groups against one another. Battles were waged and wars were won whether they were on the pitch or at the Fish.

After it was all said and done, and with a special appearance of a sparrow hawk from the Hawks team, the results were in and it was time to give out the awards. The award for best team chant went to the Tarantulas and the best t-shirt design went the Gophers. However, the most coveted award of the night for Foundations Champions went to the MS-GM Falcons for the second year in a row! Safe to say the night was filled with celebrations all over campus before real life as Thunderbirds begins on Tuesday.

The Falcons team storming the stage to accept their Foundations Champion award (photo by Rui Wang).

The Falcons team storming the stage to accept their Foundations Champion award (photo by Rui Wang).

Video: Foundations Flag Ceremony (10:40)

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Video: Foundations Flash Mob (3:58)

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Slideshows: View hundreds of Foundations photos on Flickr