LASA kicked off our Saturday sessions on September 10 with a focus on Doing Business in LA. Gathering at the Huntington, our teams of students brainstormed their visions for “doing business” on the whiteboards. Colorful pitches for companies and cross-industry strategies for success impressed everyone. The restaurants and t-shirt manufacturing of tomorrow’s LA prove to be innovative!
We then boarded our bus and visited Glenair Manufacturing in Glendale. As guests of Ron Logan and Rob Tillman, we watched a slide show that provided the perfect context on the company both from a product/services perspective (because most of us didn’t really have previous experience with 
interconnect manufacturing!) and a corporate values perspective. Rob led a terrific tour of multiple buildings and ground operations of their business. We even met Rose, whose loyal dedication to her work and the company was inspirational. Thank you to Glenair for their hospitality and for providing us with lunch. We suspect the day enticed more than one student to become an engineer.
When we returned to the Huntington, we heard from Rick Wartzman about LA’s wealthy and the businesses they run. From the demographic data about wages to the biographical information, we were super impressed with some of our students’ knowledge about economics and wondered about the future of LA and her workers and businesses.
Finally, we welcomed Kyle Finck from the L.A. Times to explore opportunities for student journalism. Keep your eye on HS Insider (at highschool.latimes.com) to see if our students publish their work!