Project Open Hand in Atlanta

Recently, the GE Energy IMLPs along with our program manager, Ben Phillips, and John Kochavatr, CIO of GE Energy Shared Services, partnered with Project Open Hand for a very eventful day of volunteerism. Open Hand is a non-profit organization that provides comprehensive nutrition care for a diverse population of men, women, and children with unique nutrition needs. One of their signature programs is called Prepared Meals in which one, two, or three freshly cooked meals combined with snacks and supplements are prepared to meet the daily nutrition needs of low-income men, women and children who are dealing with a critical, chronic, or terminal disease; and homebound seniors.

Each day 5000+ meals are prepared to be sent to those who meet the criteria. Since it was the end of the day, our team was proud to have successfully prepared 720 meals within one hour and thirty minutes. This was a very fun event in which we all were applying our GE training to “Lean” the meal preparation process to make it faster and more efficient. After we were finished, we received great feedback from the Open Hand staff for our excellent work. Following the event, we hosted an inclusion event at Taco Mac, an Atlanta based restaurant known for its wings and diverse selection of beer.

 The Project Open Hand volunteer event was certainly a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience. We are definitely looking forward to working with this organization again in the future.

Feed the Children in Houston

Recently, the Houston Drilling & Surface and Aero IM teams partnered with Feed the Children to provide some volunteerism for this worthy organization. For over 30 years Feed The Children has delivered food, medicine, clothes and other essentials to individuals and families affected by famine, war, poverty and natural disaster.  It is one of the largest private organizations dedicated to this effort delivering more than 133 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and their families each year.  Food is delivered domestically, to all 50 states, and overseas to 119 countries around the globe. 

GE volunteering with Feed the Children in Houston, TexasWe were able to help Feed the Children by packaging personal hygiene boxes to be distributed to families in need within our local community. These boxes were filled with items we often take for granted such as soap, shampoo, conditioner, children's books, and much more.  It was a great opportunity to not only provide a service, but to engage in cross-business networking and team building as well.  We worked via assembly line to fill the boxes (leaning our processes and working at Six Sigma capacity, of course), completing 640 packages, weighing approximately 12,800 total pounds!  Afterwards, we had a team lunch of delicious BBQ before returning to work.  Don Kafka (a fellow IMLP) and myself were there among representatives of both the D&S and Aero IM teams, including Nick Parrotta, Aero’s CIO.

It was an enjoyable, worthwhile, and mutually rewarding experience that we had with Feed the Children, and we hope to keep the engagement alive in the future!

Welcome to the Hacker High School – Fairfield, CT, USA

You are sitting in your first period class in High School; the morning bell just rang and the announcements have just begun.  Two strangers are standing at the front of the room.  You don’t know who they are and don’t necessarily care as long as it means no class and no homework…. Your homeroom teacher’s lecture becomes white noise in the background.  You begin to trail off in thought and are soon interrupted:

“…here to discuss Hacking!”

Your ears quickly perk up, no longer distracted, all of your attention directed towards the two individuals who had been strangers just minutes before.

© www.gamepur.comNow that I have entered the “Real World” as a Corporate IMLP at the GE Headquarter in Fairfield, CT, I have seized the opportunity to become more involved with the Community. Specifically, the IMLPs are developing a program known as Hacker High School. Hacker HS allows me the opportunity to speak to an AP computer science class on information security related topics (SQL injection, ethical vs. unethical hacking) for a few hours while giving the students an idea of what we do at GE.

This past week was my first Hacker HS experience so I was a little nervous and unsure of what to expect.  As I walked through the classroom doors with a fellow IMLP and a representative from IT Risk we were greeted with the warmest of welcomes.

We soon kicked the day off with an overview of who GE is and gave a run through of leadership programs available at GE. After that, we went around the class with an ice breaker, quickly learning there were some advanced computer scientists present. We had advanced programmers, individuals hosting their own web servers, future graphic designers, game developers, all falling under the “future leaders of technology umbrella”.

By this point the class was oozing with excitement in anticipation of our security pitch.  As we ran through the hour and a half presentation we touched on information security related news such as Anonymous, HBGary, Sony, and Lulzsec. We then moved onto an intro into SQL, followed by a WebGoat demonstration where we showed simple SQL attacks in action and how to defend against them. The students were very responsive to all of the material we were presenting, which made it much more of a discussion than a lecture. One thing that shocked me was how quickly everyone was able to pick up SQL having had little or no database experience.

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IMLPs Getting Involved

© www.jamemphis.orgOne of the great things about working at GE is the number of opportunities you have to serve your community. As IMLPs, we are particularly encouraged to get involved and give back! Since I arrived in Atlanta, GA for my first rotation as an IMLP, I had been hearing about all the volunteer opportunities in the area through GE. I started to participate in various community service events throughout my first months at GE and was shocked and impressed to see how many employees and leaders at GE were so involved! These experiences made me want to look into giving more of my time to the company’s ongoing volunteer efforts. One opportunity in particular struck a chord with me.

The GE Energy IMLP Program Manager, Ben Phillips, sent an email out to the Atlanta IMLPs about an opportunity to get involved with Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement, or JA, is a nonprofit organization financed by business, foundations, governments, and individuals. The organization is dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. In partnership with businesses and educators, JA brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential. The event that I had the opportunity to participate in on October 12 was called “JA in a Day,” where volunteers spend half a day in a class room, teaching a course to the students. I had the pleasure of working with Ms. Johnson’s ninth grade class at Campbell High School and teaching the JA course called “Careers with a Purpose.”

I walked into the school the morning of the 12^th, armed with a large bag of candy for “positive reinforcement” in an effort to help capture the attention of a room of 25 14 year-olds.  Long story short, the day went pretty much as I expected: some students actively participating, others more interested in talking to their neighbors; some students actually interested in the lesson, others more interested in the candy, and so on. However there were a few shining moments in the class when the students would ask questions that both showed they were really curious about their futures, and also really made me think about my own.  As an IMLP, I am doing something that I am interested in and investing in a career that I am truly passionate about. I am so lucky.

At the end of the day, I asked all of the students to say something they learned from the course or that they would take away from our time together. Many students listed some of the terminology we went over or named the different career paths we discussed, enough effort to earn a piece of candy. However, one student (one who originally seemed more interested in talking to his friends than paying any attention to the course materials) gave a response that was so simple, but at the same time made me realize that if, at the end of the course, one young person gets it, the day has been a success. His comment reinforced why I wanted to volunteer with JA in in the first place and why I want to continue volunteering with Junior Achievement, sharing my “real-world” experiences  so far as an IMLP.

He said: “Today, I learned that no matter what you want to do, it’s important to start thinking about your future early. Find something you’re passionate about and find a way to make a career out of it. Think about your goals and what you need to do to achieve those goals. And don’t let anything or anyone get in your way.”

Be involved, be an IMLP!

(C) Promethean PlanetThe Information Management Leadership Program is widely recognized as a premiere leadership and IT development program inside a strong company, GE. As an IMLP, this means being part of a great, global team that is spread out across all five continents while collaborating every day through the most advanced collaboration tools. Being an IMLP also means staying connected with all of the exciting events occurring globally within GE.

In order to successfully manage the huge amount of work needed to prepare these events, both collaboration and exposure to top management must be continuously enforced.  As an IMLP, you could have the opportunity to participate and/or have a leading role in the organization of international job fairs, global meetings, and volunteering initiatives. Moreover, as part of your assignments, you will be responsible for delivering added value to the company. For example, you can be involved in updating and renovating official websites or writing for a globally known blog, like I’m doing right now.

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