BSE Scholars Tour Silicon Valley

An integral part of the College Park Scholars Business, Society & the Economy program (BSE) is an emphasis on real-world immersion experiences. BSE students learn through high impact experiential learning opportunities such as the Silicon Valley immersion experience.

With unparalleled access to the University of Maryland alumni network and under the direction of BSE program director Mark Wellman, 27 undergraduate students spent their Spring Break touring some of the nation's most distinguished tech firms and participating in unique class sessions taught by venture capitalists, executives and entrepreneurs.

“The Silicon Valley study tour challenges students to make connections between academic theory and real-world practice," according to Wellman. “It benefits students by providing a dynamic learning environment that merges traditional education with practical experience.”

Additional student benefits include learning about job markets in Silicon Valley, meeting with working professionals, becoming familiar with a specific company's missions, values, recruiting strategies and industry trends.

Organizations and speakers included:

• EA (Brad Margolis - Director, Executive Development & Organizational Effectiveness)
• Flex (Natalia Pena - Sales Support Specialist)
• Netflix (Andrew Park - Manager, Technology Planning & Analysis)
• GE Ventures (Dennis Cinelli CFO)
• Intel (Katherine Kepler - Marketing Director)
• Tangle Creations (Richard Zawitz  - CEO)
• Box.com (Jon Herstein - Senior Vice President Customer Success)
• Wepay  (Rich Aberman - Cofounder)
• Dice (Shravan Goli - President)
• IDEO  (Alan Ratliff - Culture and Experience Designer & Assaf Shalev - Senior Interaction Designer)
• Twitter (Ross Hoffman - Senior Director Global Brand Strategy)
• Google (Adam Hurwitz - User Acquisition Consultant & Matias Duarte – Vice President Design)
• Tesla (Jun Shin - Senior Project Manager Battery Technology & John Spruill  - Senior Manager, Vehicle Test)
• Facebook (Kendall Beveridge, Mario Cole - Production Engineer & Eric Zinnikas and Greylock (Jeff Markowitz - Partner)

Students gain great insights into how each business works, their unique cultures, and how different roles and functions work together within companies. Students are given the opportunity to ask questions ranging from how that company is reacting to particular challenges in the market to what it’s like to work there on a day-to-day basis.”

Some of the BSE sophomore students are using the experiences gained from this trip as their Capstone project, the final requirement for Scholars to earn a Citation Certificate from the 2-year program.  They will compare and contrast company structures and climates, their missions and goals and present their findings during the Annual Scholars Showcase on May 5. 

College Park Scholars is a two-year, invitation-only, living-learning program and all business students begin their studies with the BMGT289 course, “How Do Innovators Think?” taught by Wellman. 

During the past several years, Wellman and his students have spent several weeks each year visiting San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Seattle, Portland, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, and Melbourne. These unique opportunities help provide his teaching with a broad, deep, and continually refreshed perspective on key industry trends and developments. 

The Smith School was well represented in the Bay area during spring break with a student cohort from Quest, as well as Elana Fine, managing director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and Sara Herald, a­­­­­­­­­­­­­ssociate director.

"It's great for our students to get an inside look at the leading entrepreneurial ecosystem.  There were visits to companies of all kinds, from growing startups to venture capital firms to top technology companies like Google and Facebook, which enabled participants to understand how business gets done out in the Bay Area," said Herald.

Everyone from UMD came together mid-week with dozens of alumni at the Computer History Museum for a Networking Luncheon. This event was organized by the university’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences and was an informative event that featured Robert Rodgers of Skyport Systems and Nick Hamilton of CISCO.  

Says Abb Kapoor, a sophomore BSE student and COO of his own start-up company, Curu, says, “Silicon Valley really confirmed my decision to pursue entrepreneurship. The culture there is extremely risk oriented. Everyone we spoke to in Silicon made some career move that helped them become successful, whether that risky decision was a failure or success. I've realized that success is based on persistence, and never looking at failure as a negative, but an opportunity to learn, grow and continue.”

Wellman, who is a faculty member with the Management & Organization Department, has known several of his students to receive internships and job offers as a direct result of these visits through the years. 

A few weeks ago, Sam Palmer, a supply chain major who will graduate in May, wrote: “Following our "Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantages" trip to Portland and Seattle in August 2013, I stayed in contact with [the Nike presenter]. This past fall he was able to put me in direct contact with recruiters. I just recently accepted a position to work as a Global Procurement Analyst. The networking connections I made on your program were very helpful and ultimately played a large role in finding a job. Thank you very much for running such programs and allowing students to develop these connections.”