CATLab Blog The Bigger Picture: CATLab in San Francisco
This May, CATLab embarked on its annual trip to San Francisco, bringing along twenty-two students for an unforgettable deep dive into the heart of California’s tech industry.
On the way to the city, we made a special stop in Sacramento to visit the incredibly welcoming Webconnex team. Four of our students are interning with Webconnex this summer, and they had the rare opportunity to spend the week working in person at the company’s headquarters. The visit kicked off with a party-style welcome, complete with water balloon fights, a dunk tank, and plenty of laughter—all organized by the amazing Webconnex staff and the ever-energetic Eric K. It was such a joy to see our interns celebrated and embraced so warmly by their new community. (And thanks, @Webconnex, for including the rest of us in this celebration, too!)
After saying goodbye to the interns, the rest of our students and staff continued on to the Westmont in San Francisco Jackson House, where we settled in for the night and prepared for the first full day of tours.
The next morning, we split into three groups for a series of immersive, behind-the-scenes experiences. One group had the rare opportunity to visit the Pixar Headquarters in Emeryville, hosted by the incredibly talented Mark Nielson, who gave an exclusive insider tour (plus a few sneak peeks we can’t stop talking about!). Another group explored the Intel Museum and Apple Headquarters, wrapping up the tours with a special lunch at the Google Campus. Meanwhile, the third group visited Workday Headquarters in Pleasanton, where they were welcomed by CATLab friend William Yu, who shared career insights and led a personalized tour of the office.
After the tours, all three groups reunited at Salesforce Tower and wrapped up the day exploring the Salesforce Transit Park. The gorgeous weather, vibrant city energy, and great company made for the perfect ending to day one, with some students later venturing out to explore the city.
A special thank you to our wonderful hosts—Eric K, the Webconnex staff, Mark Nielson, and William Yu—for giving us such a memorable and inspiring start to our trip!!
Beginning our second day with a sunny walk through Golden Gate park, we prepared for our visit to City Hope, a cafe, food pantry, and community center, in the Tenderloin neighborhood. Brad Berkey, the director of the Westmont in San Francisco program, has been volunteering with City Hope for over six years alongside Westmont alum Paige Maclaren. During her time in the WSF Program, the talented barista became a big advocate for her Tenderloin neighbors and played a major role in what the community of City Hope has become. Filled with the kindest staff, delicious food and coffee, and smiles all around, we were in awe of what City Hope has to offer their community. They’ve even partnered with local businesses for gourmet coffee beans and a volunteer Michelin-star pastry chef to bake their daily pastry options. Where life feels impossible at times in the Tenderloin, City Hope has opened their doors with generosity and wholehearted compassion for their neighbors, prioritizing each individual who enters those doors. We heard from Reverend Paul Trudeau and learned about the foundation of City Hope and its newest feature, the sober living house. City Hope is a powerful reminder of the realities that exist alongside Silicon Valley—and a testament to faith and our calling to serve one another. Thank you to Reverend Paul Trudeau and Paige Maclaren for inviting us into this experience: It was absolutely incredible to see all they’ve done for their community.
We then hit the road to Mountain View, where we visited the Computer History Museum and Intuit. In the Computer History Museum, we walked through the timeline of computing history and technological advancements while playing around with live demos and even a life-like AI robot!
After our time at the museum came to an end, we hopped on over to Intuit, where we were reunited with CATLab alum Adeline Ndacyayisenga. Aly Solimon, connected to us through CATLab friend and recurring Tech Talk speaker David Grant, gave a great tour and told us all about the process of becoming an Intuit intern. He emphasized the power of having professional stories that easily tie into the company values. A full circle moment came when our very own CATLab alum Adeline walked us around the Intuit campus alongside Aly. After the tour, Adeline and another Westmont alum, Anne Uwamahoro, joined us for dinner in town, ending our second day in good company. Students traveled back to the Jackson St. House and were free to explore the city one last time before gearing up for the following travel day back to Santa Barbara.