Silicon Valley Experience Teaches Networking, Perseverance, Self-Discovery

On the flight to Silicon Valley, Nicole Chaora ‘24 took a few minutes to write a letter to herself in the notebook Michael Walsh, director of Griffiths Center for Collaboration & Innovation, gave her to document her experience.

“I was nervous,” she said. “But I wanted to remind myself what this opportunity meant to me.”

The math and physics double-major, who is a member of the 2023 Baker-Simpson Entrepreneurial Leadership Program cohort and one of the students selected for the Silicon Valley Experience,spent a week meeting with alumni, innovators and entrepreneurs in the San FranciscoBay area. 

“We met with Jesus Rosario, an account executive at Coursera,” she said. “He told us that he saw a woman crying and asked if she was okay, and they started talking. A few years later, she sent him an email about the job at Coursera. He really stressed how important it was to connect with the people around you.”

She took that story to heart. “I began going into these meetings more open-minded about the people I was with,” she said. “I began asking myself, ‘how does this apply to me?’”

At the end of the week, on a visit to IDEO, that focus paid off. “As soon as we walked into the building, I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do,” she said. “I got to see engineers not just sitting at a desk, but using design perspectives, business and engineering to solve climate change and other world problems.”

And she took the extra step of reaching out to the company to inquire about internship opportunities. “The only reason I was able to see that was because I went through those other steps in making those connections,” she said. “I was prepared!”

The group also got to have dinner with Simon Baker ‘93, the founder and CEO of BakerAvenue Asset Management. “Simon was also an international student, so he was explaining how Hartwick taught him how to hustle after graduation,” she said. “I was so inspired. If he could do it, so could I!”

A second dinner, with Dmitry Lipkin ‘91, VP of Global Marketing at Halio, Inc., further engaged her. “He said that Hartwick taught him perseverance, that your major does not dictate where you end up,” she said. “At times, it can feel very restrictive, but you’re always learning other skills in your major that can be applied everywhere, as long as you are open to the opportunity.”

On the flight back, she took some time to reflect on the letter she wrote a week earlier. “The whole experience was a lesson in self-discovery,” she said. “I know so much more, I am a much more outgoing person than I was when I wrote that first letter!”