This week, May 30 to June 4th, the 2011 class of IRIS interns have gathered in Socorro, NM. This orientation week is designed to help the interns get to know one another and to provide them with an opportunity to learn the basics of seismology and computer programming. The week kicked off with a welcome dinner, bonfire and a number of get to know you activities. Day one of the program featured the deployment of 3 broadband seismographs behind the PASSCAL Instrument Center and an introduction to various seismology topics. Many thanks to Pnina Miller and the other staff who helped make the deployments run smoothly. Following this classroom sessions provided an introduction to the Grand Challenges seismology faces in the next decade (Rick Aster, NMT), an introduction to Earth's structure (Glenn Kroeger, Trinity U.) as well as an introduction to the realities of graduate school (Rob Porrit, a program alumnus & PhD student at Berkley). In addition to time in the classroom the group has also had several opportunities to get out into the field and see both the micro scale (from visiting faults) to the macro scale (a view of regional volcanism and rifting from about ~11,000ft). We even squeezed in sometime at the NMT driving range 😊 Lots more to go in the next two days of the week!