We kicked off our FUTURES program this week, welcoming  31 new FUTURES. Throughout the week, our FUTURES met with their new departments and mentors for training. They also attended a number of events including a pool party, a kick-off party in our EDM Park, and the Netsmart 3.0 celebration.

Here, three FUTURES, Jake, Morgan, and Taylor, reflect on their first week as a FUTURE.

Jake Lamb: Software Engineer FUTURE

Wow what a first week! We honestly can’t believe we fit it all inside of 40 hours. On the engineering side the FUTURES have been getting acclimated to their environments, navigating secret rooms at Breakout KC, and slowly learning the quirks of their mentors and managers. The beginning of the week was spent on having all the engineering FUTURES getting to know one another and learning how to become more team-oriented.

Grace Aguilarleon and Brett Merriam have taken the reins as the mentors for the engineering FUTURES this year, and they have done an excellent job so far. They took us out to lunch on Tuesday and followed it up by locking us in rooms at Breakout KC. The exercise was a great way to further our team building and cooperation skills with one another. This will come in handy for sure as the summer goes on. We can’t wait to see what lies ahead (hopefully it doesn’t involved being locked in more rooms).

Morgan Pehlman: Delivery Analyst FUTURE

Week one was here and gone, time FLEW by! With moving in and getting to know each other, attending the FUTURES kickoff party, Town Hall, and the 3.0 celebration (with amazing BBQ) we all have had a great start to our time at Netsmart.

During the first week at Netsmart, I have been in Avatar training as a part of the Consulting team. We have been learning a lot about Avatar and how to build forms as well as the billing side of the program. The 8 consulting FUTURES have gotten to be really close by helping each other fix problems in Avatar and clarifying questions.

I am personally looking forward to continuing my learning with Avatar and to practice building the different forms. It is also awesome working with the other FUTURES because we relay information between each other to pick up and learn new things.

I am also looking forward to getting to know the other FUTURES better. We have already had the FUTURES kickoff party at the pool allowing us to get to know each other better but we have taken it into our own hands to go out to eat, go to the pool and just hangout!

Taylor Smith: Marketing FUTURE

The first week of the FUTURES program is almost complete and it has definitely been a lot of fun! However, I started my internship at the beginning of May. During the month of May, I did the branding for the FUTURES program which included various items such as the t-shirt, posters, table tents, etc. Other design projects I worked on during May included a mock-up for the new EveryDayMatters site, icons, social media cover images, and a couple of ads.

The entire marketing team has been awesome in helping me get connected and guiding me with incorporating the Netsmart brand into various design projects. I’m looking forward to working with everyone to keep driving the brand forward.

Since the FUTURES program started this past Monday, I have gotten to meet a lot of the other FUTURES and hear about their roles within their respective teams. The FUTURES kick-off party was a success with all of the FUTURES and their mentors, good food, and games.