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Cogswell College, one of the world's leading institutions offering a unique curriculum fusing Digital Arts, Engineering, and Entrepreneurship, has launched a brand new program entitled "The Silicon Valley Immersion Experience." Now available to entrepreneurs and students on a global scale, Cogswell's Silicon Valley Immersion Experience program just hosted its first group of participants - a team of entrepreneurs from Turkey. The announcement was made by Dr. Deborah Snyder, president and Chief Academic Officer, Cogswell College.

Spearheaded by John Duhring, Cogswell College's Education Technology Specialist, five entrepreneurs from the Turkey-based Sabanci University's "SUCool" Pre-Incubator Program, spent the week of June 23-27, visiting the Cogswell College campus. The group also attended a series of meetings, workshops, showcases, meetups and presentations, including trips to Stanford University, IDEO, and the Institute for the Future; such top Silicon Valley-based companies as Google, Skype, Flipboard, and Eventbrite; financiers and incubators including StartX, the Founder Institute, Hackers/Founders, and Hanhai Investments, and start-ups including Good Eggs, gThrive, NVT, Diya TV, and others.

To view a quick recap of this program, please see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqw8M-sK6ok

The five entrepreneurs from Turkey who participated in the Silicon Valley Immersion Experience have already had varying degrees of success in their native country with their new start-up companies. These companies include a peer-to-peer car sharing service (www.masinga.com); a home automation system that turns household lights on and off (www.evrika-tech.com); a new search solution that builds a database and a recommendation engine (www.6lt.com); an online directory of "green friendly" construction products and services for the U.S., the UK and Turkey (www.greenoscope.com), and an Android and iPhone app called "Whisp," likened to "Twitter for Audio," which allows the user to disseminate audio snippets across social media platforms (www.whispto.com).

The visiting Turkish entrepreneurs to Cogswell College attended the school's new program under the guidance of Kutlu Kazanci, Director of Sabanci University's Entrepreneurship Committee and "SUCool" Pre-Incubation Center. He said, "Through our adventure with the Cogswell Silicon Valley Immersion Experience, our team learned a great deal about the different stages of the entrepreneurial life-cycle, through successful, failed, and in-between examples. They learned what it takes to fundraise; how large, successful ventures operate; how to overcome a variety of challenges, and the importance of focus, teamwork, and developing a specialized company culture. A few of our entrepreneurs even had the chance to meet other, Silicon Valley-based inventors, who were doing very similar things. This program provided us with a series of fun, educational, and inspiring moments, and exposed us to a variety of new points of view. I would definitely recommend this adventure to other entrepreneurs based around the world."

Adds Dr. Snyder, "Cogswell College is uniquely positioned as the only educational institution that captures the spirit of innovation -- and the mechanics and culture -- that is Silicon Valley. We have the ability to share with entrepreneurs and students from around the world insight into the 'start-up' mentality of new enterprises. Our new Silicon Valley Immersion Experience program has been custom designed for recent entrepreneurs with new products and services to bring to market, emerging entrepreneurs with new ideas who are looking for guidance and direction, and executives who may wish to send their leaders, engineers, and marketers to Cogswell to broaden their exposure to the Silicon Valley culture of innovation."

"Our Silicon Valley Immersion Experience is truly a unique program," said Mr. Duhring. "It's a fact that thousands of people from around the world want to know more about Silicon Valley - they want to see how start-ups function, they want an opportunity to connect with established executives who work here, and many even wish to establish a base of operations here. Through our connections with the local Silicon Valley community, we can offer participants the chance to meet a wide range of people, from big institutions to small start-up enterprises. After having successfully hosted our first group from Turkey, we've learned that entrepreneurs, no matter where their home country is based, instantly recognize, embrace, and appreciate being immersed within the Silicon Valley culture."

ABOUT THE COGSWELL COLLEGE SILICON VALLEY IMMERSION EXPERIENCE PROGRAM:
Cogswell College is based in the heart of the Silicon Valley - the leading edge of entrepreneurship in the world. Cogswell's new Silicon Valley Immersion Experience offers entrepreneurs, innovators, and students the adventure of a lifetime, right in the hub of America's innovation and venture capital. The Silicon Valley Immersion Experience is designed for individuals, groups, and organizations seeking to advance their entrepreneurial mindset by connecting them with some of the brightest, and most creative, minds currently operating in Silicon Valley.

The Cogswell Silicon Valley Immersion Experience is a unique, five-day program which allows selected participants from around the world an exclusive, "Behind the Scenes" glimpse into the geographic epicenter of entrepreneurship. Participants leave the Cogswell program inspired to observe and act like innovators and entrepreneurs, carrying with them the creativity, history, and inspiration of the stories they have witnessed during their visit to Silicon Valley. To apply for this program, please call 1-855-361-5930, Email: immersion@cogswell.edu, or visit http://entrepreneurship.cogswell.edu/immersion

ABOUT COGSWELL COLLEGE:
Designed as a "fiercely collaborative, living laboratory," Cogswell College is located in the heart of the legendary Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale, California. The school is a WASC accredited, four-year institution of higher education with a specialized curriculum that fuses Digital Arts, Engineering, and Entrepreneurship. By blending art with engineering, Cogswell offers students a unique educational culture by training them across every step of the delivery pipeline.
With a distinguished history of more than 125 years, Cogswell's unique academic approach offers an integrated model that has long been associated with "best practice" in the industries and communities it serves. Cogswell students are exposed to a collaborative, project-based, learning experience which integrates multi-disciplinary teams to take original projects from concept to production to implementation.

Numerous alumni of Cogswell College have secured prominent positions within the entertainment, videogame, technology, computer, animation, and motion graphics industries throughout California and beyond. Several of these alumni have established careers with such high profile companies as Activision, DreamWorks Animation, Disney, Electronic Arts, Pixar, and Microsoft Game Studio. Many other alumni have launched their own creative ventures.
Recent Cogswell alumi were members of the Academy Award-winning production teams which worked on the blockbuster films "Frozen" and "Life of Pi." Some of the other well-known consumer projects to which Cogswell alumni have contributed include the feature films "Madagascar," and "The Avengers," and the popular videogames "Modern Warfare 3," "Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" and," Gears of War 3." Additionally, animated short films conceived and produced by Cogswell students have gone on to win prestigious awards, including those presented by the California International Animation Festival, the Colorado Film Festival, the Oregon Film Festival, the Miami Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film & Animation Festival, the San Jose Short Film Festival, and Canada's International Film Festival.

Cogswell College is located at 1175 Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale, California,
94089. For more information, please call 1-800-264-7955 or visit:
http://www.cogswell.edu/