September 30, 2004

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

Bringing corporate America into the classroom

Leland hosts Applied Materials VP/CIO

By Lorraine Gabbert
Staff Writer

Students take note as Applied Materials CIO John Hoffman addresses the group.

It isn’t every day the chief information officer of an $8 billion company briefs students on the road to success, but when you combine business with education, exciting things can happen. While outlining the key role that project management plays in everything from the senior prom to the military and business, Applied Materials Vice President and CIO John Hoffman hit home with 120 freshman students at Leland High School, illustrating how their curriculum and academic acuity may shape their entire lives.

“If you don’t gain the skills you need in high school, such as in science and math, many doors will start to close for you for the rest of your life,” emphasizes Hoffman. “It will limit what college you’re accepted to, and your career choices.”

John Hoffman is no stranger to Almaden, having lived in the valley for 10 years with his family. His daughters, Laurel and Brigitte, have played in the AVYSL for years, and he has coached their teams, and continues to do so.

He grew up in New York, and attended West Point, where he focused on engineering. When he was a general’s aide, after serving in the airborne infantry for seven years, a friend suggested he interview at Applied Materials, and the rest is history. In his 17 years with the company, he has seen it grow from 1,000 employees, with revenue of $140 million, to 12,000 employees worldwide, with revenue of $8 billion.

Besides guiding Applied Materials, the world’s largest supplier of products and services to the semiconductor industry, Hoffman also serves on the Senior Advisory Council of the Industry Initiative for Science and Math Education (IISME), which brings corporate America into the classroom through industry-education partnerships.

Industry Initiative for Science and Math Education program
Through the IISME Summer Fellowship Program, open to K-14 Bay Area teachers, educators broaden their perspectives, gain new and enhanced skills, and industry contacts who can later serve as classroom presenters (like John Hoffman), and mentors. They are also paid $7,000 for their work.

According to Executive Director Jennifer Bruckner, IISME was founded by a group of business leaders concerned that students graduating from Bay Area schools didn’t have the skills required in science, math, and technology-related fields. To address this problem, they educated the teachers, thereby educating the students. “By providing teachers with opportunities to involve themselves in industry and research laboratories, they get a much better sense of how those subjects are really being used, and can make them more relevant and interesting in the classroom,” asserts Bruckner. “When a student asks, ‘Am I really going to need to know this?’ the teacher can knowledgably answer, ‘Well in my work at NASA Ames; Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space; or Intel...’ Teachers rave about the program and say it’s the best professional development available to them.”

“Students may decide in high school they want to be engineers, but don’t have enough math and science background,” contends Hoffman. “We work with teachers to show them how these skills are needed and how they can get the kids interested.” This summer, 150 teachers from schools such as Los Alamitos Elementary School, Leland, and Pioneer high schools held IISME fellowships.

As a corporate sponsor of IISME, Applied Materials hosted Leland High School math teacher Helen Arrington. “One of the things we discuss with the teachers is how to take the skills they learn here back to the classroom,” says Hoffman. “Helen said she’d really like to have people from the industry come to the school to talk, because it’s really important to connect with the business world. That’s what led me to be here.”

“Working in the industry beside people who do it for their livelihood is a great experience,” attests Arrington. “You get a chance to learn and spend time on a project. I’ve gained presentation skills I never had before. Now I use PowerPoint, Excel, the LCD projector and e-mail assignments to my students. I absolutely loved it. I think more teachers should do it.”

Teachers interested in pursuing an IISME fellowship must have at least two years of teaching experience, a contract, and commitment to remain in teaching and impact students for years to come. “Teachers who have gone through the fellowship program actually remain in teaching at a much higher rate than their peers,” says Bruckner. “They come away with renewed enthusiasm and increased self confidence.”

To his delight, Pioneer High School biology and life science teacher Robert Zaccheo, received a summer IISME Research Fellowship at Affymetrix, a biotech company. “I gained amazing insight into how industry works,” enthuses Zaccheo, “and knowledge of the type of skills we want our students to learn and have when they graduate. I also gained some great contacts.” Through his fellowship, Zaccheo not only developed a weeklong gene chip technology lesson, but also acquired a new approach to teaching—especially in his genetics biotechnology course. “The way I have the students do a lab I’ll probably model after the skills they’ll need in the workforce,” he says.

Among those workforce skills is project management, which Hoffman addressed in his talk to the students at Leland High School. “Whether you’re in high school, college or in the business world, whatever your task is, you have to determine your goals and objectives,” Hoffman stated. “Project management can be applied to any activity that requires a group effort to get something done, from a NASA expedition to Mars, to staging a rock concert, developing a new video game, or planning a high school prom. Coaches use project management in football to strategize and win the game. The same is true of industry, and the army where lives are at stake. Leadership, problem-solving, attitude are all components of what it takes to succeed in the business world.”

Determining goals, gaining approval, establishing leadership and forming a project team, developing a plan, assessing and minimizing risks, task execution, and measuring success are all aspects of project management.

To be effective, it also requires skills in communication, prioritizing, problem solving, and presentation, as well as an ability to collaborate with others and remain positive.

“People tend to gravitate towards people who remain positive,” Hoffman shared. “Leaders are generally people who are positive because they find solutions where everyone else finds problems.”

A freshman perspective
Hoffman’s advice resonated with the high school freshman. “The presentation was very educational, I learned a lot about project management,” said freshman Ana Farrington.

“After hearing his speech, I think I am going to try harder in school because he made me realize how important my education really is,” commented student Karina Cavanna. “The presentation was full of information, and helped me to understand the type of education I need to be a successful businessman,” attested freshman William Douglas. “The presentation was very enlightening. I learned that to be successful, I will have to be able to work with others very well,” said Hossein Niazmandi.

Leland English teacher Peter Park appreciated Hoffman’s presentation to the students. “We want to talk to them as freshmen about the importance of building collaboration as well as individual skills and how education segues into successful careers,” said Park.

“A lot of them want a nice house, car and boat, but unless they get an inheritance or win the lottery, that takes work. As we know, they don’t let just anyone into Stanford University. You have to be highly competitive and have the grades and scores to back it up. We don’t want them to be seniors and realize that their C- grades aren’t going to get them into the schools or careers they want, and school is a segue to bigger and better things.”

“I wanted him to speak to the children about project management because that is one of our academy goals,” said Arrington, “and I thought it would be important for them to see their relevance in the business world.”

Hoffman hopes that Arrington’s experience with IISME as well as his connection with the students makes a lasting impression. Judging from the students’ response, it has.

“His presentation…made me think about what I want to do in life and how to get there,” stated freshman Michelle McKiney. “John Hoffman taught us how education is important for a life time of success,” concluded Patricia Lopes.

“That was a really good talk,” another student told Hoffman. “I’m going to take your job some day.”

To learn more about IISME, see their Web site at www. iisme.org.

The Leland Spirit Squad gears up for Homecoming 2004

The theme is picked and the Leland Spirit Squad and their families are hard at work planning this year’s homecoming events. In addition to celebrating Charger pride, the Leland homecoming is the Spirit Squad’s largest fundraiser of the year.

This year’s theme is “An Evening in Paris” and the girls, along with their parents, will transform the Leland cafeteria to a Parisian scene for the homecoming dance.

The celebrations kick off on Thursday Oct. 14 at 7 p.m., where the community and alumni are invited to attend a rally in the Leland gymnasium. The evening will be filled with music, the 2004 homecoming royalty and skits performed by the Leland Spirit Squad and football players. Also, a special presentation will be given to this year’s seniors and their parents honoring their hard work and dedication in spirit, football and band.

The homecoming games will be played the following evening, Friday Oct. 15. The competition begins when the Leland Charger’s JV team takes on the Pioneer Mustangs at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity football game at 7:30pm.

This year’s homecoming games have been scheduled at PAL stadium, due to the ongoing renovations to Leland’s football field. Therefore, no homecoming parade has been scheduled. PAL Stadium is located at 680 So. 34th St., in San Jose.

Leland homecoming events wrap-up
Rally —Thursday Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. at the Leland gymnasium
JV football game —Friday, Oct. 15 at 5 p.m.
Varsity football game —Friday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.

Clarification

The teacher that arranged the SJSU-Morgan State visit for her students at Castillero with the Read2Lead Classic (Almaden Times Sept. 23-29 issue) is Gayle Kludt. Teacher Mary Surginer, who team teaches with Kludt, was featured in the article because Kludt was “out of the office” that day.