I joined the Operations Research Center in 2019 and it immediately became a central part of my “academic family”. Its interdisciplinary and its collegiality make it a truly unique place on campus. The ORC brings together researchers and students working on an impressive range of topics—spanning methods such as optimization, machine learning, stochastic modeling, and statistics, and application areas ranging from health care, transportation, energy, finance, etc. This breadth of research makes it a remarkable environment, where everyone learns from everyone on a daily basis. The ORC is also home to cohorts of exceptionally bright, energized and passionate graduate students. I am always inspired to discover new topics and expand my own horizons when interacting with ORC students, in and outside the office.