Day 4: Friend Request

It started as Facemash back in 2003.  Developed by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard, Facemash "used photos compiled from online facebooks of nine houses at Harvard, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person."  It is now Facebook, the premier social networking site in the world.

Thanks to the connections of a Marymount parent, we were able to spend the morning at Facebook headquarters.  Guided by our new friend, Joe, we quickly learned that Facebook is indeed a city within a city.  Main Street Facebook is filled with restaurants, shops and other amenities such as a barber shop and arcade.  The main theme on the campus is HACK.

Hack at Facebook - and at many places here in the Silicon Valley - doesn't mean illegally accessing someone else's computer.  Here it means "a usually creative solution to a computer hardware or programming problem or limitation."   These people are problem solvers, innovators and designers.

Joe the tour guide orients us to Facebook.

Our group photo.

After our tour, we were able to have a Q&A session with three Facebook employees:  a sales director, who works with companies to help mold their message to a social media focus; a software engineer, who works to not only maintain current Facebook code but works to develop new applications (don't ask him to share what he's working on, though!); and Facebook's Press Director, who focuses on developing the Facebook message.  Much of the Q&A focused on the role of women in computing and at Facebook.  While everyone agreed that the balance between men and women needs work - both at Facebook and in the Silicon Valley in general - everyone believed that women's work at Facebook is highly valued.  

Everyone also received a Facebook swag bag, which included a signed copy of Lean in for Graduates by Sheryl Sandburg, COO of Facebook.  Check out her iconic TED Talk.    

After a delicious lunch at the Facebook Cafe, we were off to the Computer History Museum for a workshop on entrepreneurship.  The CHM has a long history - and mission - to preserving the history of computers and coding.  Mr. Walters even saw the first computer he ever owned - a Commodore VIC-20!

At the CHM, students worked in teams to develop a solution to a potential problem in 2040: developing strategies for implementing driverless cars or developing strategies for integrating robotics into our daily lives.  The students came up with four very innovative ideas:

• EdEd: Drivers Education for the Future
• MTSA: A Robotic Surgeon
• MTS: A Magnetic Train Pod
• Adiuvo: A Robotic Nanny

The interesting twist: Mr Walters, Ms McKenzie-Hamilton and Ms. Webster serves as "Sharks" and decided which company would receive a theoretical $500,000 investment to fund their design.  All of the ideas were great, but the overall winner was "EdEd."

Our day kept going!  We were off to Santa Clara University for an information session and tour of the campus.  

SCU is a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic University that "offers more than 8,000 students a rigorous, undergraduate curricula in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering."  The Admissions Department gave us a great tour, and we learned that the mission of SCU closely mirrors that of Marymount: a strong focus on social justice.  All students are required to completely one semester of in-service/outreach work related to one of his/her courses.  Our Admissions Ambassador, Maria, explained how she worked in an immigrant education center during one of her freshmen year courses.

And where else for dinner but In N Out Burger!