Today, sitting in Ann Arbor, Michigan and realizing Firenze is over, is a bit hard to digest for me, no more group meetings in Ross School of business, and looks like a thing of the past. But memories which I gathered from this whole journey of Firenze still excite me like the first day when I joined my Firenze team.

I am from the University of Michigan from where Microsoft Firenze competition received maximum number of entries. It shows enthusiasm among Michigan talent to do something out of their course work, to flaunt their immense subject knowledge to the entire nation. My team won the university finals and it was in itself a feeling of pride, a feeling to make others jealous that we are going Seattle MS HQ.

Ah! Did I just mention Microsoft headquarters; let me tell you that it was the best experience of my life. Thinking about MS headquarters in my mind and heart, they get filled with lots of memories that they both together can’t handle. I have so much to say and my hands are not with me to type all this! It was a journey of how a graduate student from University of Michigan suddenly felt like a superstar; like she is a winner of some American Idol competition or something. Cameras were capturing each and every moment and angle of mine, So Awesome! It started out as this, we were handed out an agenda on the first day at Microsoft, some student presentations were planned, but we didn’t know what! So we thought like in every other event they must be starting out with introduction presentation, introduce yourself, your university, why you are different and so on…. But it’s Microsoft!

So be prepared for what you have never thought of in your life. Right away, after our breakfast, we were asked to present our university finals product. But wait we have added so many things after our university finals and we have not clubbed them all L .Never mind, Pradeep U.N (organizer of Firenze) came to us and we had to present in next five minutes, o.k. !! Now I can say like this “umich is prepared for every last minute challenges” ;-). After a struggle through Q&A, and seeing everyone else’s presentation, now was the time for another surprise!! “Microsoft” J .

Now we were no longer in our university teams and we had to form some mashed-up pasta teamJ. Now a journey of what I was the most memorable part of this competition starts. We were mentored by two great leaders and mentors of Microsoft. Thanks Giorgio and Deniece for giving us a direction which lead us to a path of victory. Now I can say confidently that a mentor can bring out the best talent of their students and believe me it’s true!! We were a team of students who have never seen each other in our lives; we didn’t have enough introductions with each other even. Oh! My god I had a feeling what a mess this will create. But we had mentors who helped us in gelling with one another in a way that we felt we knew each other for a long time. We were given a problem which was HARD because it was not a problem that a bunch of corporate guys had in their company and they wanted us to solve but that was a problem that you, me or everyone is facing in today’s world. I thank my mentors for bringing out our best and giving us tips and tricks which I will remember & follow throughout my life, and they will definitely help me succeeding! I also thank the Microsoft crew which made me feel like a superstar for capturing every moment in their cameras. Thanks Giorgio, Deniece, Pradeep and the Micosoft Team for making this journey so special to me!