Hello everyone, 

I am Leonie from Austria. Having just finished my Bachelor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Warwick, I was ready to leave research and essay writing behind me and to dive deep into analytics and data. I have to admit that I was a bit anxious to start the Bootcamp with no prior experience in Coding, Quants, etc., but the incredible teachers as well as classmates push you over your limits. The learning curve has already been extremely steep and I am impressed by what I have learned so far. 

The first three weeks of the bootcamp are now over! And the one word that describes this short period of time best is “intense”. On our introduction day, we have heard it a thousand times but we were not taking it that seriously. However, the past weeks have proven me otherwise.

 We have now completed our basic R coding class and are soon starting Machine Learning in R. Further, we survived not only the Python Exam with Pablo, who has had the “fast mode” on, but also the Maths & Stats Exam, where Juanjo is overwhelming us with complex formulas and graphs. Luckily, Rodrigo is helping us in his Resilience Class to stay sane through inspirational talks and meditation. A highlight has been the announcements of the groups and challenges for our Capstone Project and while we are all more than excited to get started, we know that this will add an extra layer of intensity and steal some hours of sleep. However, I am confident that we will all manage this together. It is amazing to see the deep connections we have built in our group so far and that each and every one is bringing in something different from which we can learn. 

I am excited for the weeks to come and to spend it writing codes and solving problems with these lovely people.