they want to learn a trade or skills that are unique to startups because they want to start their own company?
They need to understand what they are looking for other than just money and be able to spend the time to look for those things. College graduates don’t have a lot of obligations or bills to pay yet they have an opportunity to spend a little more time in finding the right job for themselves. It’s important for them to do that.
X: What did you want to be when you were a kid?
A.A.: I wanted to be a science officer aboard the “Starship Enterprise.” I always wanted to go to space, of course. I loved math and science. I wanted to discover things, create things. I had a wild imagination and was very curious. I watched “Star Trek,” and I thought it was the ultimate experience to explore the cosmos. I loved astronomy.
I grew up in Iran; when I was about 16 years old, I came here. I finished high school in the U.S. and started college right away. The school system is a little bit different; it’s a lot more advanced than the school system in the U.S. in terms of the topics you studied. When you entered high school, you select an area of concentration. The choices are math and science, or literature, or biology and human sciences. I chose math and physics, so I was actually studying calculus and advanced physics in the second year of high school.
High school is equivalent to the first year of undergraduate college. [The difference was good] because when I came here I didn’t speak English at all. I went to high school and didn’t understand what the teachers were saying but the languages of math and science is somewhat universal in many aspects so I was able to still attend classes, and as I was learning [English], I was still able to participate and graduate.
X: Tell me about your early influences.
A.A.: I was the first person interested in math and sciences in my family. My parents didn’t have an interest or background in that. It stems from my curiosity and just wanting to know how everything works. I
