Becoming Leaders: who will be the next?

Hello guys!

how are you today?

I have just come back from the San Jose Biocenter, where some of us have had a job interview.

You know, we are looking for a company which could host our internship..so we were really excited about that, also because I think it is absolutely the most important part of our US experience.

The San Jose BioCenter (SJBC) is an incubator which includes about 20 biotech companies and has been ranked one of the fastest growing life science clusters in the United States.

http://www.sjbiocenter.com/

It is a state of the art facility equipped with wet laboratory and office space that provides world class business and facility services to high potential life science companies. SJBC members have access to an extensive range of products, services and equipment that enables them to grow and scale successful businesses. It was great to see there something very familiar to me, like labs, pipettes, chemicals...

Classes as well are very interesting, yesterday some of us received their first grade - Finance exam- and it was very good! I would have never imagined to get such a good mark in a subject so different from by scientific background...and moreover learnt in a different language...

I have also started to read Mr Posner's (our fantastic dean!) book: "the Leadership challenge" and I have found it really great! Last week, then, Mr Posner introduced us to Mr Mike Selfridge, Senior Vice President of Global Services Silicon Valley Bank. He held conference, belonging to the Santa Clara Leadership Forum (SCLF) program and, after the seminar, we were invited to dine with him. It's so appealing the idea to meet some of today's leading Silicon Valley CEOs and senior executives so easily!

So guys, these have been for sure the most exciting events of my week and I was looking for sharing with you these wonderful experiences...anyway, before leaving you, I would like to show you a couple of pictures describing our free time (not so much actually..), some of our new friends and our famous passion for chocolate!!! Enjoy...see you!!

Yours,

Elizabeth

Lessons for Future Scholars Part 1

Dear BEST students,

Welcome at the second lesson of FUNDAMENTAL of USA.
Today we will talk about:
- How to have a TV contract,
- How to obtain a SSN (Social security Number ),
- How to buy business cards at bargain price
- and finally I want to stress once again how to face a vast amount of commitments, like Micol has already told you in her last blog.

So let’s start with the

TV contract
First of all you have to know that the TV here in America is mainly broadcasted by cable. If You want to connect your TV you need to underwrite a contract with a TV company, the most famous is Comcast they provide you up to 300 channel for about 50 bucks per months. If you can’t face that expense I can suggest to you to buy an aerial called “rabbit” you can snap 6 or 7 channel, is not a lot but with 30 bucks you are ok for all the 6 months.

SSN
The social security number is something of absolutely essential, you can’t work without it!!
or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).
If you are unable to obtain a Social Security number You will then need to obtain an ITIN from the Internal Revenue Service.
For more information about requesting your ITIN, please visit Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) website


Business Cards
Busness card are something of essential. In a few week You will meet so many people that you absolutely need to have some business card. I suggest to buy it in internet. 100 should be enough but to be sure buy 250, you can buy at less then 20 bucks.

Scheduling
If at the very beginning because of the NETWORKING approach, the course deadline, and public relation you fill the sensation to be unable to manage all that huge amount of data.
Don’t worry! You simply need a blackboard to write there all your commitments.



Hops this will help you guy
Abramo

West Coast Fulbrighters meeting

Hello there,

nice to see you again!

Today I would like to tell you about our first meeting with the other West Coast Fulbright grantees in San Francisco. It was a really pleasant evening and we had the opportunity to meet a lot of very nice people from all over the world who are living as the same experience as us.

The meeting was at the Museum of African Diaspora, MoAD located at the heart of San Francisco (685 Mission Street).

http://www.moadsf.org/index.html

MoAD is committed to showcasing the "best of the best" from the African Diaspora.

Embracing the newest applications in media technology, MoAD features an interactive theater and immersive exhibitions. This coupling of art, culture and technology enables MoAD to bring Africa, the African Diaspora and the world community closer together.

We really enjoy the opportunity to visit MoAD because it is totally different from the classic Museum that we have in Italy.

In particular, we could admire the Painting Ethiopia (which is the current exibition): The Life and Work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw.

Qes Adamu’s paintings stand out as truly exceptional. They tell stories about Christianity from an Ethiopian perspective, about the political and military exploits of 19th and 20th century Ethiopian rulers, and about rural and urban life. Rather than working from rote, Qes Adamu creatively re-envisions the subjects he paints.

He approaches every painting as a new problem to be solved. He is constantly thinking… dreaming… about making art.

So..I really suggest you to go to MoAD to admire Qes Adamu's paintings because they worth a visit!!!!

Before leaving you to the next episode, I would like to ask you a question:

Are you able to resist this kind of temptation????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????

Honestly.....I can't resist!!! This is a very big problem for my figure!!!

See you next week

xxx

Vally

News from Bay and... BAIA

Hi folks!

It has been a long long week, a great deal of stimulating activities.

We all were so busy... nevertheless I had time to dream of my beloved Sardinia....

In particular I would like to tell you sth about BAIA and the first BAIA meeting we joined on Tuesday, Jan 23 in Palo Alto.

BAIA [Business Association Italy America] is an independent, nonprofit, member-based network whose mission is to create tangible business value by establishing a professional forum through which information, knowledge and opportunities can openly and effectively be exchanged between the business communities operating in the United States and Italian business interests. BAIA's new approach to business networking is based on an Open Source Governance model.

The speaker was Peter Thoeny, a recognized thought-leader in wikis and social software.Featured in numerous articles and technology conferences including LinuxWorld, Business Week and The Wall Street Journal Thoeny explained what wikis are and how they are used, covered social aspects and security concerns while teaching how to roll out a wiki. He also explained how teams can use TWiki, an open-source wiki for the enterprise, to build tailored wiki applications supporting their workflow and processes.

For more details see http://twiki.org/

I would like to thank Giorgio Ghersi, Matteo Daste and Michele Ursino (BAIA founders) for giving us the chance to attend those interesting meetings that are also a great opportunity of meeting a great deal of entrepeneurs.

Next BAIA meeting will be held on February 8, 2007 in San Francisco.

Take it easy,

Emanuele

...how many things to do...

So, nice to meet you again….
Another week has passed, maybe all too quickly!!!
Everyday is full of new things to learn, new people to meet, new experience to have…it’s wonderfull but also very challenging!

We don’t want to forget anything so… we’ve bought a huge board on which we are writing down all our commitments and, as you can see, they are quite a lot!!

One of the events we took part in last friday was the Venture Capital Investment Competition "VCIC" hosted by the Santa Clara Univesity.

http://www.vcic.unc.edu/









In this competition, differently from the other business plan competitions, the students are the investors, and real entrepreneurs try to convince them of their projects. We had the possibility to attend this event and it was a very powerful learning experience!!

Even if we’re very busy (!?) we found time enough to go to Santa Row..It’s like a small Wonderland!



Unfortunately when we arrived there, at a quarter to 6 pm, shops were closing so…no shopping (this means health for our wallet) but only a very very good Italian pizza!!!!!!!!!!






See you next week,
Micol

LOST..IN TRANSLATION!!

LOST.....









Ok guys...I think that this picture can really sum up our first trips around the valley by our new cars! Actually we never got lost so far, but maps and google have become our best friends!!!



SO, just to thank our friend, namely Google, we went there yesterday to have a look to this "good giant" ...well, everyone knows it's a real giant by now and it is great to think how quickly they were able to create such a big company: from Siliconvalley you can really conquer the world!!



Beside this, it has been really intesting to talk with Joe, a very smart guy from the sales group, who has explained us the succesfull vision ruling in Google. First of all -DEMOCRACY- that is, every single decision concerning the company, comes from a democratic opinion survey, than, INNOVATION and, most of all, the aim to develop each employee's CREATIVITY. Great!

GOOGLE is our friend!



As to me, last Friday I met my mentor, Mr Brian Neider. Mr Neider is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios and is an alumni of Santa Clara University. I met a very kind and helpful person who gave me a lot of suggestions about my stay here and my future. Than, I had the opportunity to visit EA studios, so funny...it seemed to be in a living videogame!!



EA STUDIOS in REDWOOD CITY




.....IN TRANSLATION


I go on making poor showings around because of my English...last week I told to a guy that he seemed a "turkey" instead of "turkish" (from Turky)!!!! anyone helping me!?!

Yours,

Elizabeth

Lessons for Future Scholars Part 1

Hello guy,
big stop news!!!!!
Today, we’ve finally rented two cars:

a Dodge Caliber

and a Kia Rio

For the first time in my life I drove a car with automatic gears, it was a really strange sensation. I couldn’t take the left leg and the right hand stopped and I hope I will be comfortable quite soon also with this kind of cars.

Now… move on…
I believe that this blog must be an open window on our life here in Santa Clara helping in this sense people reading this blog to understand why we are here and what we are doing. But at the same time since we are a sort of pioneers in this project I also believe that we should leave as much as possible useful information to the posterity.


So I want to point out here a list of essential things to do once the next generation of the BEST students will arrive here in US:

1. Open a Bank Account
   this is not essential but help a lot, The Italian Bancomat doesn’t work here and this is the only way to have the ATM (the equivalent of bancomat here in US).
2. DSL connection and telephone
   The first is absolutely indispensable, the second can be avoided.
3. Buy a USA Mobile
   
   This is really useful you can communicate with everybody at acceptable fare
   NB: In US you pay both when you call than when you receive a telephone call
   
   
   
   …See you next week guy
   with the second part of the list.
   

Have a nice week
Abramo

Networking approaching.....

Hello folks,
here I am again!!!
I decide that I would use this BLOG to share with you the most important events of my life here in California, my impressions as well as my thoughts...

First of all...I would like to show you our house...it's really nice, isn't it?

Sunday, January 7...Leavy School of Business
New Years Brunch!!!

..actually, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Dean, Barry Posner, for the excellent brunch on behalf of all the Italian Fulbrighters!!!




MONDAY, January 8... courses began!!!

1) Managing Innovation and Technology

2) Financial Management

3) Seminar in Leading Dynamic Organizations



All these three courses are very interesting and challenging...I really enjoy them...even because they are totally different from the courses I attended in Italy...so for me they represent also a new approach to study and to know a different culture!!!


Friday, January 12...to SAN FRANCISCO to meet Matteo Daste and Giorgio Ghersi, cofounders of Business Association Italy America (BAIA)....


...and so...our NETWORKING starts!!!!



N.B. For more information about Baia, please visit the website.

http://www.baia-network.org/



I could go on speaking endlessly because here every day is full of things to do and to learn...but maybe it is better if I stop now...at least for the moment!!!

See you next week for the next episode!!!



Vally (my nickname!)

CIAO CALIFORNIA!

Hello everybody!Last but not least, right? So, let me introduce myself.

My name is Emanuele Orgiu, the fifth italian guy that joined the BEST/Fulbright Silicon Valley Immersion Program. I come from Italy. I was born in Sardinia, the small island on the left of Italy in the map. Sardinia is wonderful and well-known for its amazing wildlife and especially for its impressive coasts and beaches that pull a great deal of tourists in. This is just a taste of Sardinia's beaches:

I spent almost all my life in my native village, Laconi (http://www.laconi.it/english/indexi.html) where I obtained a diploma from "Liceo Classico Pitagora". Immediately afterwards I moved to Cagliari, the largest city in Sardinia, where I studied Electronic Engineering, graduating in 2004 with a thesis entitled "Realization of an all-organic field-effect transistor combining Soft Lithography and Lithography Tecniques".

Immediately afterwards I joined the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (DIEE), University of Cagliari, as Ph.D. student in the fantastic team named DEA (Advanced Electronic Devices) coordinated by prof. Annalisa Bonfiglio. Here is my "Magic Team":

Currently, my research is focused on innovative electronic devices, in particular Organic semiconductors based devices, organic dielectrics characterization, Soft Lithography processes and innovative textiles applications.

In 2006 I spent some months working as a researcher in Konarka Austria (Forschungs und Entwicklungs) GmbH, a company leader in the world for research on organic solar cells. Its chief scientist and cofounder is Dr. Alan J. Heeger, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2000.

In October 2006 I applied for the BEST-Fulbright program, discussing an entrepreneurial project based on the development of organic sensors.

I've been selected and... Here I am! I'm getting used to California and to its sun even if it seems that the warm got shy so far. ;-)

Presently I attend some classes of the MBA program of the business school in Santa Clara University.

It is a big change route in my career but I think this experience will be great because in Silicon Valley I can "smell" the right climate that will help me to realize my entrepeneurial project when I come back to Italy.

For now I just want to say thanks to the BEST/Fulbright staff for giving me this great and unexpected possibility.

Many many thanks to Mr Gaetano Pellicano & Ms Candace Putnam (U.S.-Italy Embassy), to Mr Arthur Austin (IIE) and to Kevin Holmes (CIE) for really taking care of us all.

That's all, folks!

Emanuele

from Italy..to California

Hello,
I’m Micol Macellari and I come from Italy.

I grew up in a small town not far from Milan but nearby the country where we produce different and very good kind of wines. For this reason I promise myself to do a “Napa Valley wine tasting-tour” before my return to Italy in order to compare Italian and Californian wines and to judge which are the best!

from the left: me, my big brother Mattia, my sister Margherita and my little brother Marcello

Last november I received my Masters degree in Medical and Molecular Biotechnology at the university “Vita-Salute San Raffaele” in Milan.

My professional objective is to integrate my scientific skills with experiences that allow me to effort my entrepreneurial spirit in order to be able to recognized, develop and bring to market a "good" scientific project.

With this aim I decided to take part in the Fulbright /Best Silicon Valley Immersion program.

My business project is about the creation of a biotech start-up focused on innovative therapies for several cardiac pathologies based on the unique capacity of a specific protein of inducing stem cells migration and proliferation

During our first week in California we didn’t have enough time to get bored!
One of the first thing that we’ve learned is that in Silicon Valley lunchbreak doesn’t exist!










...just a sandwich...







But if you go to San Francisco ( and we went there!!) you can taste one of the most typical dish at the Fishermans warf: fried calamaries and crabs! Very good…the only problem is that it is quite difficult to digest!!!



But...even if we’re so far from our country, we can find here a lot of "things" sounding italian!

...a roadsign in San Francisco...

So, I tryed to tell you a little bit about myself..

see you soon,

bye bye

Micol

Abramo has come to the Valley

Hi, my name is Abramo Barbaresi (the oldest of the team, well… wishing to see the other side of the coin, we could say the most experienced). I am a native of Senigallia (it's a small city in the centre of Italy), probably the most happening city in Marche Shire. Senigallia is located just in front of the Adriatic Sea and it's a really nice place. I did my schooling there at the "Enrico Medi" Scientific Lyceum School. Afterwards I move on to Milan, where I spent the latest 15 years of my life. There I received a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the “Politecnico di Milano” University I worked for short period and I continued my studies with a Ph D focused on 3D measurement without contact. For more information about my Ph D research interests I suggest you to visit my website when I was student www.barbaresi.net . My goal is to start-up a company working in 3D scanner field. In this sense I’m here to acquire entrepreneurial skills studding at SCU and principally to find partnership and/or alliance with all that Companies want to join with me in the development of new applications in 3D virtual world, security and medical field, using my 3D technology. I arrived here in California a couple of weeks ago and I immediately had a good feeling with people and the place. I feel that this will be a fantastic adventure.

The weather is fantastic even if unusually windy.

Our first visit in San Francisco

Hey, the same tram I had in Milan!!!!

I'm at home!!!

Enjoy our blog

Abramo

Hello from Valentina...one of the BEST!!!

Hello everybody!

I'm Valentina Coccoli (the second one from the left..the blonde one..).

I come from Naples, a city in the south of Italy...actually, it is the place where PIZZA was born!!!

Following is a link where you can find a lot of curiosities about my city: http://www.napoli.com/english/.

I received my Masters Degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Naples "Federico II" in July 2004. I'm currently on my third and final year of PhD program on Materials and Structure Engineering, focus on Biomaterials at the Dept.of Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II" (http://www.crib.unina.it/).

I applied to the BEST/Fulbright Silicon Valley Immersion Program (http://italy.usembassy.gov/p4g/best/ ) to acquire entrepreneurial skills to create a spin-off company from my university research group.

My challenge is to create a tissue and organ substitutes company in Italy. This company would be a leading global provider of tissue engineering products that allow patients to continue living healthy and active lifestyles.

I arrived here in California 10 days ago with the other grantees...fortunally I get on very well with them...we live in a beautiful house all togheter. We really enjoy Silicon Valley' s weather and people.

Following I upload some pictures of our first week here...I hope you enjoy them.

See you next week


Valentina


Valentina and Micol: our first breakfast at Starbucks!!!




The 5 Fulbrighter grantees after the LSB New Years Brunch.














First time of the Fulbright GIRLS at Safeway: Desperate Housewife?!?