Sun Microsystems Student Zone: LEAD Engineering students visit Sun
LEAD Engineering students visit Sun
My colleague Chris and I had the opportunity to host 30 students from LEAD Engineering last week. "For over 25 years the Leadership, Education, and Development program has provided business education to over 7,500 academically strong high school youths of color. LEAD was founded in 1980 when the landscape in American business dictated the need for programs like LEAD to diversify the management pool within the business sector." LEAD students are high school juniors from all over the country visiting UCBerkeley for a three week boot camp in math and engineering. Partnering with their main sponsor, Google, Sun and Apple hosted these students at each of their locations.
They stopped by Sun for a tour of our Executive Briefing Center (EBC) and to talk to some of us. It was a great opportunity to have a conversation with our CTO / VP of IT - John Dutra. I knew John would be great with students when I started talking with him in our local coffee shop. I was getting out of my car, twisted my ankle, looked up and he said, "Are you alright?" I said, "Yea...I guess I need coffee before I can walk." I said, "You look familiar - do you work at Sun?" He said yes and before you knew it he told me about Nadira A. Hira (Fortune Magazine) who is a GenY authority, how he is fascinated by this Gen and threw in a few facts like this is the biggest generation to enter the workforce since the Baby Boomers. I gave him a few names on who I followed in the blogosphere and realized he would be a good speaker for the LEAD students visiting. These students were impressive, inquisitive and outgoing. They had no problem challenging John, especially when he called Earth a "planetoid." John had no problem joking right back with them. It appeared that the most thought provoking exchange between the students and John was that this Generation would truly be up against some ethical challenges when faced with technology innovation. This group of young people will have the challenge of wrestling with values, be overwhelmed by data and will have to decide how to keep the "rise of the machines" under control. yikes. Nothing like a little pressure. I'm just glad they have programs like LEAD to inspire, challenge and support those students interested in a math or engineering field.
They stopped by Sun for a tour of our Executive Briefing Center (EBC) and to talk to some of us. It was a great opportunity to have a conversation with our CTO / VP of IT - John Dutra. I knew John would be great with students when I started talking with him in our local coffee shop. I was getting out of my car, twisted my ankle, looked up and he said, "Are you alright?" I said, "Yea...I guess I need coffee before I can walk." I said, "You look familiar - do you work at Sun?" He said yes and before you knew it he told me about Nadira A. Hira (Fortune Magazine) who is a GenY authority, how he is fascinated by this Gen and threw in a few facts like this is the biggest generation to enter the workforce since the Baby Boomers. I gave him a few names on who I followed in the blogosphere and realized he would be a good speaker for the LEAD students visiting. These students were impressive, inquisitive and outgoing. They had no problem challenging John, especially when he called Earth a "planetoid." John had no problem joking right back with them. It appeared that the most thought provoking exchange between the students and John was that this Generation would truly be up against some ethical challenges when faced with technology innovation. This group of young people will have the challenge of wrestling with values, be overwhelmed by data and will have to decide how to keep the "rise of the machines" under control. yikes. Nothing like a little pressure. I'm just glad they have programs like LEAD to inspire, challenge and support those students interested in a math or engineering field.