Collaborating with the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, the GATE student board arranged for 30 students to visit the Google Headquarters, also known as Googleplex, on Jan. 29.
Junior Julia Murray, a member of the GATE student board at Aragon, says, “We do various field trips, and we thought that a tour of Google would be a really fun one. We wanted to do something that people would be interested in or excited about, and they have been. We try to do things that are educational, but fun and interesting at the same time. We’ve been planning the event since December, and talking about it for a while before then.”
Supervised by English teacher Tiffany Wang and social studies teachers Jennifer Seif and Scott Silton, the group boarded a school bus and took a 30 minute trip to Mountain View. Once students stepped off the bus, they were immediately immersed in color.
Sophomore Fabio Gallardo says, “The first thing I noticed was the various amounts of color. They had colorful bikes and buildings everywhere. It made for a vibrant campus that was much more exciting than your average office space. The people there seemed to come from all walks of life, cultures, backgrounds, and appearances. Yet, they were all under the same roof. It was extremely diverse, with people of all ethnicities surrounding me.”
After a quick wait, a young woman called Jackie Palma introduced herself as the tour leader. Palma had just come out of college and has been working as an analyst for about four months. After a brief introduction, she led the group to Charlie’s café, where the students had lunch.
Senior Alvin Ho describes the food, saying, “The selection was amazing. The choices of food ranged from Mexican to Indian. We all took a little bit of everything, from Italian to American to Greek. The lunch was extremely satisfying; I’m just sorry that we only had thirty minutes to finish.”
After a satiating lunch, Jackie led the group to the Google lobby, where she introduced the two tour guides, David and Michael. David works on advertising, and has been working at Google for two years. Michael works on Google Wallet projects. The group of students split up and went with each tour guide.
The tours gave students a glimpse of life as a Google worker. The students walked into micro kitchens, which are kitchens in each building stocked with snacks, drinks, and food for employees. There were laundry rooms, nap pods, and lounge areas everywhere. A majority of the items were colored red, yellow, blue, or green, the colors of Google. Students even walked past a two story slide, which the students were unfortunately unable to ride. When asked if he had ridden the slide, tour guide David joked, “Every chance I get. It’s the fastest way to get from point A to point B, not to mention fun.”
Outside the buildings, students walked by a beach volleyball net, a giant shark fin, a giant dinosaur skeleton, and an endless pool, which is like a bath tub which allows a current to flow against you. In the distance, David pointed out tennis courts, putting courses, and other recreational activities where workers could relieve stress and exercise.
As the tour came to a close, the students entered the Google store, where they sold everything that Google could put a label on. The items in the store ranged from Google bibs to Google rain boots. There were giant Google pillows, Google onesies, and Google gumball machines.
After the tour, tour guide Michael ended up giving a quick tech talk to the entire group in a board room. He advised the students, “If you want to think for the rest of your life, you should strive to be a software engineer.” He also joked, “If you like things better than people, you’ll become a great software engineer.”
As the tech talk ended, students began to file out of the rooms and onto the bus. Tour guide David, who had just given his first tour, claimed, “It was a great experience. I love volunteering my time to educate kids [about] engineering. I feel that giving these tours is a good way to get others to experience Google and be inspired to become a software engineer.”
Junior Troy Young reflects, “From this field trip I learned that if you find something you enjoy doing, then you should continue to pursue it and possibly turn it into you career. If you do what you enjoy for your job, then you won’t be working a single day in your lives.”
Sophomore Netta Wang says, “Although I’m not particularly interested in the computer engineering field, this definitely showed me another perspective of that field. Google made it seem more playful and creative with its colorful campus and carefree vibe. By the end of the trip, we all wanted to work at Google.”
