Silicon Valley Program

The Silicon Valley Program is an immersion program offered during the spring semester providing students with an intense exposure to entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial eco-system in Silicon Valley (including San Francisco). The program includes pre-trip group work, Spring Break travel and interaction with entrepreneurs and investors, and post-trip reflection.

In the program, we focus on accomplishing the following learning objectives:

  1. Exposing students to the culture and context of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley;
  2. Introducing students to leading edge venture capital firms and venture capitalists and exploring their perspectives on and approaches to entrepreneurial start-ups;
  3. Enabling students to interact with alumni entrepreneurs and learn from their entrepreneurial experiences;
  4. Examining the challenges that young entrepreneurs face in the very early stages of a venture launch and how they can surmount these challenges; and
  5. Encouraging students to self-reflect on their own entrepreneurial journeys based on exposure to the epicenter of entrepreneurship in the United States

In addition to the program itself, students are encouraged to spend additional days in the Valley meeting with startups on their own, interviewing with firms and pitching investors.