Over the years, Silicon Valley has gone from being a suburb of San Francisco to the technology and innovation center of the world. Companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Netflix are situated there, as well as over 2,000 other tech companies. The area is also known for its launches of Tesla, Twitter, Yahoo!, and eBay. Many of these companies play a major role in our lives because of how close we live to them. They’re able to easily influence our personal lives and education to a certain extent.
Some of the most recent innovations we depend on include virtual and augmented reality, electric vehicles, and artificial intelligence. We can already see the Bay Area being filled with Teslas on every road, showing how living close to Silicon Valley has an effect on us. In addition, artificial intelligence such as Siri and Alexa have become increasingly popular among families living here.
It’s established that Silicon Valley has influenced the way we live, but one main question remains: how has it specifically influenced students’ education at Washington High School? Living near the Silicon Valley has sparked interest for many students in the technological aspect of our modern world. Therefore, over the past few years, Washington has developed and introduced classes such as web design, computer science, and digital imaging to allow students to be more involved and up to date on what they’re curious about.
Senior Anvi Kunta gave insight as to what effects living in close proximity to Silicon Valley has had on her education in computer science. She stated that, “Over the summer, I attended Girls Who Code at Intuit, and it helped me see what it’s like to be a female in computer science working at a company. It’s really nice that tech companies in the Silicon Valley are taking the initiative to expose female students to computer science and providing a positive environment for them to learn in.” Silicon Valley provides great learning opportunities to students who are interested in the field of technology. Anvi was able to learn code in a corporate setting, something many students don’t get to experience.
Furthermore, Dr. Lisa-Marie Burns, a teacher at Washington in charge of web design, personal finance, and marketing, has given her perspective on living near Silicon Valley. She says, “We have an advisory board, and I have industry members sit on my advisory board and review my curriculum to make sure it’s current and relevant for things that are happening today.” This shows that teaching tech heavy classes near Silicon Valley has positively affected her teaching career because she has a direct connection to people from the industry. It’s ultimately an advantage for our school because everyone is kept up to date.
This staff reporter graduated in 2020.
Shomili Madabhavi is a senior at Washington High School. She grew up in Fremont, California. This is her first year writing for the Hatchet, and has contributed to many articles in the A&E, News, and Sports section. Outside of school, she enjoys hanging out with friends, watching TV, and napping. In the future, Shomili plans to pursue computer science at a 4 year university.