By Atom Wang
As a first day ice-breaking activity, we dove into an escape room challenge! Our group got assigned a horror-themed room—definitely not for the faint-hearted and rated one of the most difficult. It was intense, brain-bending, and we were (proudly?) the last team to escape. But with the room located in a beautiful upscale mall, the post-escape stroll made it all worth it.
We made a trip to the Golden Gate Bridge together, and early May couldn’t have treated us better—clear blue skies, cool winds, and iconic views. Just remember to layer up—it gets really windy. It turned into a fun bonding moment as we all tried to yell over the wind just to hold a conversation.
We headed out to the Giants game at Oracle Park. The stadium was super nice—right by the water with a park and pier nearby. The game was alright, but the best part was just hanging out and chatting with alumni.
We got to sit in Netflix’s circular conference room—super cool design that made it easy to engage, since everyone’s the same distance from the speaker. Honestly though, it turned into more of a snack run… their kitchen setup is way too good.
Had lunch at Meta’s buffet plaza—yep, it’s really a plaza with a bunch of food spots, all free and seriously good. We hit the noodle shop (they even had Thai tea—super authentic), and there’s a full-on ice cream buffet too. Hard not to love it.
Atom is a rising junior from Beijing, China majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering. She’s into data analytics, especially in healthcare and human biology, and loves building cool things with AI agents. At Duke’s Pearson Lab, she’s helping create a tool that finds patterns in EEG signals in real time, and at Duke Hospital, she’s diving into a 100-million-patient database to study how GLP-1 might protect the heart and brain. She’s excited about programs like Duke in Silicon Valley as a way to turn tech ideas into real-world health solutions. In her free time, Atom’s usually exploring new music, listening to audiobooks, or planning beach trips where she can snorkel.
Julia Zhu is a rising junior from Tallahassee, FL studying Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry and a certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship. At Duke, she’s loved serving as a PEarth Orientation Leader, an EGR 101 Teaching Assistant, and an Organic Chemistry tutor for student-athletes. She’s also involved in Society of Women Engineers, Pancakes for Parkinson’s, and the Green Devils internship program. In her free time, she is a chronic hobbyist, picking up everything from crocheting and thrift-flipping to pottery and DJ-ing. Her first taste of entrepreneurship came from launching a baking business in high school – which has since taken off on TikTok with over 9 million views. Through DSV, she’s excited to dive into the heart of innovation, meet inspiring founders, and reflect on the balance of hard work and luck in building something great.
Anjali is a rising sophomore from Hinsdale, Illinois who plans to study Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Financial Economics. On campus, she is a member of Momentum Dance Company and works at the Innovation Co-Lab as a Makerspace Technician. For Anjali, Duke in Silicon Valley is an opportunity to explore the tech industry, and learn how she can combine her engineering and economic interests after college. She hopes to learn essential skills for innovating in tech, and begin experimenting with ideas of her own. Otherwise, she loves traveling, exploring, and spending time with family and friends.
These are the kinds of questions the designers of Meta’s headquarters (formerly Facebook) must have asked themselves when sketching out the blueprint for the trillion-dollar company’s “mothership.” The result? A space so surreal and so radically un-office-like that the word “office” itself feels inadequate. If you were to pluck an alien from deep space, drop it into Disneyland, and then teleport it to Meta HQ, it might reasonably assume both places serve the same purpose.
Our journey to Meta began well before we set foot on its grounds – excuse me, campus (the term “campus” being far more appropriate than “office”). Prior to our arrival, we received an email. Not a schedule, not a corporate prep packet, but menus. That’s right: menus. We were told that each of us would have the freedom to choose where we wanted to eat lunch from a variety of on-site restaurants. Not catered food. Not a basic commissary line. Actual restaurants. BBQ. Sushi. Mediterranean. Vegan fusion. Comfort food. The options themselves weren’t the point, it was the fact that there were options at all. That we were encouraged to choose what we wanted. It was a gesture, yes, but a powerful one. Meta was proud of what it had created, and it wanted us to see it, taste it, experience it.
As we continued our journey, we passed through something that felt less like a workplace and more like a self-contained city. People rushed by – some in meetings, some laughing over meals, others lounging in common areas with laptops open and coffee in hand. Music played softly in the background. Scooters zipped past. Cafes buzzed. Hammocks swayed in the breeze. We commenced our visit via a conversation and panel with a variety of Duke alumni who now pay a visit to this “theme park” every day for their job.
Time flew by this week as DSV kicked into full gear. After a week of settling in, our schedules this week were filled with classes, site visits, & unforgettable conversations. In class, our focus was on monetization and building a brand, centered around the key question: “how does this make money?” Getting to explore various business models helped me think beyond just the technicalities of product-building but dive deeper into the operational and strategic sides like scaling a company – balancing the product development with the profitability side. Part of this week’s class, we had two incredible guest speakers: Greg Badros, who shared his journey from working in big tech to founding Gluroo & important life lessons he’s taken away from each milestone in his life so far including the importance of getting & giving feedback for anything you or anyone else may be building even if they are at a greater expertise level than you. There is still beauty in sharing different perspectives to combine together. And Karen Zhang, whose insights on product marketing, branding, and capturing audience attention resonated deeply with my personal interests of design and product development. Both speakers provided an invaluable amount of advice and wisdom that I will certainly be applying in the near future.
Apart from class, our week was equally packed with fun site visits. Kicking off the week, we visited the Oracle Stadium, cheering on the Giants, and got to meet the SVP & CIO Duke alum, Bill Schlough. Next, we visited LinkedIn, making not just one connection but four – Yvonne Kuo, Lydia Xu, Phuc Nguyen, and Nils Albertson, all experts in different fields across product, engineering, and machine learning.
Derderian, as well as the start up, Nudge, founded by Fred Ehrsam. This week was filled with exploration and learning across a diverse range of fields from sports to tech to media, and finally neurohealth. Each alum had a different path and many have shifted in their career paths – reminding me there really is no one “right” career route and there will always be opportunities to blend passions and build a career, a product, a story uniquely to one selve.
Midweek, we also attended a networking night with Duke alums across the Bay Area, where we were able to build deeper connections and learn from a diverse group of people with backgrounds ranging from all over the fields of Trinity and Pratt – we even saw familiar faces like Greg Badros. While everyone was making all their new connections, we haven’t forgotten to grow our own cohort’s connections. We’re growing closer together despite only having known each for two weeks as we explore the cities together, visiting the beaches, watching movies, grab dinners & sweet treats, or even just a nice night walk on Laurel street.
Ting Ting is a rising junior from Silver Spring, MD who is studying Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science with a passion for design, innovation, medicine, and technology. She is passionate about combining her I&E interests with medicine and technology to bring new ideas and solutions to the healthcare world. At Duke, she is involved pre-professionally through The Cube, an entrepreneurship and innovation focused student group, as well as Catalyst, a tech focused student group. Additionally, she serves as marketing and communications for DTech, outreach for the Asian Students Association, and dances for two groups, Duke Chinese Dance & Duke Synergy. In her free time, Ting Ting can be found doing arts & crafts of any kind including but not limited to drawing, painting, & digital art. She is always down for an adventure, and loves to travel & try new things. She is really excited to be part of DSV this summer and can’t wait to make new friendships while expanding her entrepreneurial skills.
By Olivia Shim
We also learned about the beauty of spontaneity and that some discoveries that benefit the general public are accidental. This week, we took a BATS improv class to understand the strength of adapting to various situations. Through multiple exercises, we got more comfortable with each other as a group and allowed everyone to take multiple roles that best fit each prompt. The best part was that every time one person made a mistake, we all shouted “Woo-hoo” to celebrate our failures and show that we were all in it together. This experience encouraged us to get out of our comfort zone and taught us how to work with the flow of our team, which will ultimately help us on our entrepreneurship journey. Adding to the joy of spontaneity, we got to see the benefits of creating new things out of boredom and curiosity at the Computer History Museum. For instance, the first video game, Space War, was created in 1962 by students at MIT as a hobby. This video game created for fun to pass time eventually led to the invention of arcades and home consoles, which reached mainstream success in the 1970s.
Overall, the most important lessons I have learned this week are that innovation is a never-ending process of questioning and that curiosity is the most significant advantage of an entrepreneur. We must have the courage to question the status quo by asking seemingly “dumb” questions because they create the most innovative ideas. These questions don’t address every main problem, and the solution doesn’t have to be (and often can’t) solve every existing issue, and that’s okay. The main thing is to stay curious and trust that something beautiful will come from it!
Olivia is a rising junior from Rochester, NY, pursuing a psychology major, a sociology minor, and an Innovation and Entrepreneurship certificate. On campus, she is a student fellow and peer mentor in the SPIRE Program. She helps younger SPIRE fellows find resources for their academic endeavors and provides support throughout the college journey. Additionally, she works as the marketing officer for a startup called Students Who Sit (SWS). SWS connects student sitters to faculty members who seek babysitting services. For Olivia, Duke in Silicon Valley is an opportunity to learn more about the entrepreneurial landscape and hopefully contribute to it in her professional career. Outside the classroom, she loves walking, hanging out with her friends, and watching movie commentaries!
If there’s one phrase that sums up my first week in the Duke in Silicon Valley program, it’s this: get comfortable with being uncomfortable . And honestly? I didn’t expect to love that feeling as much as I did.
escape rooms. And we weren’t just learning from professors — we were learning from every experience, every environment, and every person we met. But no matter the setting, one thing stayed the same: we were constantly being asked to think deeper. Why do people chase trends instead of originality? What does it mean to build something that actually matters?
The week wasn’t all intensity, though. There was laughter. A lot of it. Whether it was through improv exercises (surprisingly insightful), grocery runs that turned into group bonding, or walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, taking in a view that quietly reminded us how far from campus — and our comfort zones — we really were. It all reminded us that creativity thrives not in isolation, but in community.
Unzila is a rising senior from McLean, Virginia, studying computer science and economics at Duke University. On campus, she serves as a resident assistant and is involved in leadership roles through the Center for Muslim Life and the Pakistan Student Association. She’s also a teaching assistant for calculus and actively volunteers with organizations like FEMMES+. Unzila is passionate about using technology for social impact and is especially interested in the intersection of tech, entrepreneurship, and community development. She’s excited to join Duke in Silicon Valley to explore how innovation shapes real-world solutions and to connect with others who share a creative, purpose-driven mindset. In her free time, she enjoys reading poetry, watching classic South Asian films, and exploring new coffee spots with friends.