I find myself in California this week stealing glimpses of the future being etched in silicon in this amazing sunshine state. Roads are crowded with the hundreds of thousands who work at Google and Apple, LinkedIn, Facebook and countless startups. There are 200,000 new jobs in the area and the infrastructure of the roads and water shortage from the drought are backdrops to the energy and enthusiasm of the exponential growth of technology that has sprung from this area.
What are the implications for the students I work with?
One of the first thing I noticed was that American born people are a minority. Nearly 100% of the H1B visas (the visas needed for foreign workers to be employed in jobs in the US) are for technology. One local biotech company CEO mentioned that two of the last three hires were educated abroad (Germany and India).
I had the opportunity to sit in the Google driverless Car. 3% of Americans make their living driving a vehicle. Will the manufacture and maintenance of this fleet of robotic cars employ them all? (I love how spell check doesn’t yet recognize driverless)
I visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. While the history began in a linear path it quickly branched out into a myriad of whole new industries: gaming, telecommunications, processors, data storage, graphic rendering and sensors. How many were non-existence when I was in elementary school?
The final stop was Sand Hill Road, the gathering place of the denizens of venture capital, where millions of dollars get invested in new startups. New businesses, startups, (according to studies quoted by the Pacific Research Group) contribute disproportionately to both gross and net employment creation. They are the key to economic growth and recovery and the majority are starting here in California (although Pittsburgh is working to build the infrastructure to support startups!).
Grow a Generation remains committed to helping students develop meaningful projects in which they learn the innovation, critical thinking, collaboration, perseverance, resilience, leadership and vision that is so prevalent in the successful technology startups of Silicon Valley. Sign up for one of our summer camps and look for fall research fellow applications to appear soon!
