The first day of class, all the students started bright and early and most were at breakfast even before the pre-arranged time. There was something for everybody at breakfast, so no one was left missing the food back home.
The Berkeley campus is not very large, so we get around to all our classes by walking. But that is not a bad thing, given the wonderful spring time California climate and the beautiful university grounds. Nothing like a nice 10 minute stroll to wake everyone up before class.
The Berkeley Instructor assigned to teach the Business & Entrepreneurship course was a young man by the name of Madison Alexander. Though he was young, he was already a serial entrepreneur, having sold off one business and currently into his second venture. The students appreciated learning from someone who was actually a businessman, so that he could teach them about the practical aspects of running a business, and not just talk theory.
As mentioned, the summer camp is not just about classroom time, because an important part of the college experience is what happens outside of the classroom as well. For the first day, we didn’t want to overload the students in their new surroundings, so we started things off easy with a more detailed tour of the campus. Although the campus is small, it manages to cram a lot of things in. The first and most obvious stop for most visitors to the campus is the clock tower, Sather Tower.
Also known as the Campanile, it is the third tallest bell and clock tower in the world, standing at 307 ft. Because it is also one of the most seismically sound buildings on the campus, it is also where many fossils are stored.
And speaking of fossils, here are some other things the students saw on their first day:
That capped off the first day, and the students sure needed the time off because they hit the ground running in class and already had homework and a reading assignment to finish before tomorrow’s class.