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BUSINESS TRIP - CALIFORNIA
Delphian students attend business seminar field trip in California, meeting inspiring professionals and learning firsthand about the world of business
This March, sixteen eager Business Seminar students led by Delphian’s Dean Jordan Siegel and Assistant Head of School Mark Siegel embarked on an eight-day trip to California’s Silicon Valley and the greater Los Angeles area.
The trip’s purpose is to help students explore various career paths, make informed decisions, and expand their horizons. It allows them to gain insights into how the world around them works. As Mark Siegel tells the students each year, “This trip is designed to help you create your future.”
The students, not fully knowing what to expect but eager to learn, toured colleges, startups, large corporations, venture capital firms, and entertainment companies, enjoyed sit-down meals with Delphian alums, and even did an Imagination Campus class about teamwork at Disneyland. The trip included meetings with professionals from a wide range of businesses who shared information about their companies, advice for success, details of their unique career paths, and opportunities for students to ask these professionals questions and learn firsthand about the world of business.
From this trip, students learned the importance of passion, the value of education, and how goals and purposes carve unexpected paths to success.
Starting in California’s Bay Area, students toured Life West Chiropractic College with Delphian alumna and Life West student Sarah Stewart. She spoke about college, her personal experiences, and her day-to-day life. Sarah’s advice was: “Figure out what makes you excited. Your greatest gift is what you do well that excites you.” Student Eliza Swan said, “Sarah gave us an important lesson. She explained how working hard and doing your best will get you far in life. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I returned from the trip.”
Students toured CSBio, an inspiring high-tech company in the medical field. Its owner Jason Chang passionately shared detailed aspects of his company’s operation, giving the students insight into an emerging area of biology and the future of personalized medicine to treat cancer. Dr. Zoe Sewell from CSBio remarked, “There is not just one way to get where you want to go,” then added, “If you are willing to learn, you will be successful.” The students appreciated learning about a field they didn’t know existed. They also enjoyed the opportunity to experience wearing clean suits to tour the clean lab.
Another fascinating stop was Joby Aviation, a company providing short-distance taxi-like travel in small hybrid custom aircraft they engineer. Student Elijah Ward, interested in the field as a career path, said, “This helped me see how engineering industries work on the inside, which helped me decide what I want to do in that field.”
While touring Equinix, Sr. Client Executive for Global Accounts Marsie Sweetland stressed the importance of learning and education when she said, “Just keep learning, whatever you do. Just. Keep. Learning.”
Attorney Joseph Barbeu, a partner from the Silicon Valley law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, advised the students, “You would be surprised at the changes you can make in your career path. You’re never stuck.” This reassurance gave the students the confidence to explore various career paths and make informed decisions about their futures.
Heading south to Hollywood, students spent time at Paramount Pictures on an extended studio lot tour. The tour included visiting sound stages and outdoor sets, and eating in the employee cafeteria. The highlight of that stop was meeting with Delphian alumnus Kyle Marvin and the Paramount Executive Vice President of Production, Jon Gonda. They learned about 80 For Brady, the latest movie directed by Kyle, and about all that goes into making a movie from start to finish.
The students found Jon Gonda’s non-direct career path fascinating as he first aspired to be a stand-up comedian and worked his way up from the mailroom at Warner Brothers before landing in his current position at Paramount. Seeing a repeating theme throughout their trip, students realized that their goals were broadening and their purposes evolving. After their visit, student Celeste Sessions said, “Paramount was incredible and truly life-changing for me.”
At Juniper Post, a company specializing in adding movie dialogue and sound effects in post-production, students had a unique, fun, and hands-on opportunity to record their voices and use them to replace movie dialogue. One student said, “It was inspiring, and we all had so much fun. I feel like I learned much more about the business side of sound production.”
While visiting musician and music producer Justin Meldel-Johnson at his studio, students learned about Justin’s music and the music industry. He shared his experience, including his work with Paramour, Beck, Nine Inch Nails, and the M-83s. One student said, “Going to Justin’s studio was the best. He explained things so well, and I now understand music production better!”
At the end of each visit, Mark Siegel opened the floor for the students to provide feedback to the presenters. In each instance, it was apparent that the students were learning life-changing information. After one visit, student Tom Kalman said, “I felt like my knowledge was doubled every visit.” To summarize the trip, Anna Peens said, “Find what you love and do it with passion; if you love what you’re doing, that’s greater than the financial success that comes out of it.”
Thank you for hosting us:
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Age of Learning
Apple Park Visitors Center
Cloud Kitchen
Craft Ventures
CSBio
Disneyland
Disneyland Imagination Campus
Dona St-Cilien
Duncan Curtis
Equinix
Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Joby Aviation
Johwell St-Cilien
Juniper Post
Justin Meldal-Johnson
Life West Chiropractic College
Paramount Pictures
Stanford University
Swarm
Trellis Research
UC Berkeley
UP Partners
Zoox
