Speakers & Field Trips

5/12/25 - Charlotte Loar came to speak with us about her professional journey, and how strong communication skills have benefitted her career as an Electrical Engineer.

Friday 4/ 18/25

Jeremy Weintraub shared his experience entering, and progressing through, the world of Sales. Currently he is a Sales Manager at Gartner.  He shared a broad scope view of what it means to work in Sales as well as the communication skills needed to thrive in this field. 

Friday 1/31/2025

AI: Friend or Foe? This year we competed in a speech contest hosted by the local Lion's Club chapter.  To prepare for our speeches, we did research -- but also listened to guest speakers currently working in AI fields. Sofia Vaschetto acted as our host and moderator via Zoom while Silvia Chen and Lisa Yu informed us on what AI is, how it's being used today, ethical concerns surrounding AI -- and what is currently being done to address those concerns. 

Congratulations to Aniyah Taylor-Carroll, who won 2nd place in the competition!

Lisa is a General Partner at 99VC, investing in early-stage, cutting-edge tech companies with a data advantage. An accomplished investor, entrepreneur, and public speaker, she has recently spoken at SF and LA Tech Week, the AI Infra Summit, the Alternative Investment Summit, and the AI Hub Pilot Acceleration Program alongside the UNDP.

Silvia is the CEO and co-founder of OwnLayer, a platform that brings transparency to AI black boxes, enabling teams to deploy self-improving AI with confidence and precision. She recently spoke on the NYSE trading floor about building enterprise-ready AI solutions.

Our students attended a workshop on civic engagement at The CommonWealth Club in San Francisco. We listened to a key-note speech from Bigad Shabad from NCB News on the role journalism plays in civic engagement, and also his personal experiences as a journalist. Then, they participated in small group discussions with students from 4 other high schools. Our very own Asia Sipp spoke out several times on the microphone, and Rafa and Santos also had questions for the speaker! -- October 31, 2024

Your thoughts on the experience:

"The experience was pleasant. The people were kind, understanding, and had great critical thinking skills. It shows me how difficult a journalist can be. It also gives you the opportunity for critical thinking on political and important issues with real, real-life scenarios. Personally I don't like debates, but it was great to hear other opinions and the food was very very delicious. "

"What I enjoyed the most about the field trip was being able to talk to people and actually have good educated responses back to where we can have a conversation and dig deeper into things to make me think more, being able to hear and agree with different peoples opinions and still agree with mine was something I learned.( food was amazing) I would love to do this again."

 "I did attend the field trip and i think that was by far the most entertaining field trip ive had in a while . I enjoyed talking in groups, talking with new people, learning and talking about new stuff. And the food was great too. "

Two lawyers (Matt Talbot and Wyatt Hanson) from very different fields (estate litigation and contract law related to renewable energy projects) speak about how the skills we've discussed in class, so far, relate to their professions - 9/30/24

Dr. Leslie Hemedes speaks to our class about listening and navigating difficult conversations as a psychologist - 9/20/24

Reading to kindergarten students at Woodside Elementary School - 9/10/24