Luther College: Live in Silicon Valley 1.16.09
Over a year ago, President Torgeson, of Luther College (my alma mater) reached out to me to discuss the idea of leading a January Term experience for Luther College students. I was immediately honored and interested. I wanted to make this happen and give back to a community that gave me so much. A few roadblocks had to be overcome. First off, spending January in Iowa isn’t high on my travel priority list. I spent many years surviving mid-west winters in college and graduate school (University of Minnesota). Those days are over. This was the easy obstacle – I suggested we host the experience in Silicon Valley. 
Next I had to free up my time to be able to commit to this. That fit nicely with my plans for my 2009 business model. Stay tuned for posts on this coming soon!! (yeah, I’m a bit behind on blogging, but that will change soon).
Beginning this week (Monday, January 12th), I joined Brad Miller (Professor of Computer Science and former founder of Net-Perceptions), on a 10 day tour of Silicon Valley.
This week has been amazing. I have seen these students immerse themselves into social media and into learning about Silicon Valley. We’ve got a Luther Live Blog, a @LutherLive Twitter acccount, a Luther Live Flickr Site. You can follow these guys on Twitter: Elliot Adams, Rachel Becvarik, Stephanie Borgen, Wesley Gregg, Katie Sackett, Daniel Moss, Jacob Vaith, Patrick Williams, Andrew Woodard and Brad Miller.
You can also read their blogs:
Elliot’s blog, Jake’s blog, Wesley’s blog, Rachel’s blog!
This week highlights included: LS9, Sarah Lacy, Guy Kawasaki, Charlene Li, Tesla, Google, Apple,a San Jose Sharks game, Citizen Space with Tara Hunt and Cathy Brooks, and Pixar!
I will do my best to blog it. Count on a lot of twittering for sure!
It has been such a great experience going on this this trip. I am so glad that you were able to come along and set up great meetings with some brilliant people who know how to live and work in Silicon Valley. I have had a lot of fun meeting you this past week and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this week will hold. Thanks so much! Words can’t describe how much this experience is teaching me and helping me grow as a person.
~ Rachel
Hi Rachel. This means so much to me. I’m glad you are learning and finding inspiration in this trip. No matter where you live and work, that will serve you well! Silicon Valley was happy to have you and I was thrilled to host!
Hi Stephanie! I just wanted to say hi…hope all is well. Have you ever heard the Dave Matthews album that is live from Luther College?
[...] for the story that’s not on the about page. Last January I hosted a 10-day tour of Silicon Valley for students from Luther College (my alma mater). These students had the opportunity to visit Facebook, Google, Apple, Pixar and [...]