How did it all start?
In 2000, Rik Leenknegt had the idea to organize an amazing trip for the MCT students. It had to be an experience they would never forget; a trip where the students could become acquainted with another culture and where each student could push back his/her frontiers. The colleagues were immediately won over to the idea. And which place better to go to than the head office of Microsoft in Redmond (Seattle – WA)? Only, how do you go about it, making a trip with a large group to the other side of the world?
Not succeeding is not part of the vocabulary of the MCT team. Luckily, we came into contact with our partner Seauton, the tour operator. Seauton helped us to work out a fantastic program in Seatlle. Thus, July 2001 it was decided: in the academic year 2001-2002, we would go to America. On September 13, 2001 we planned the first info evening for students and their parents, until suddenly on September 11, 2001, something happened that could make everything fall through.
Fortunately, the attacks on – among others – the WTC towers did not stop us to further working out our plans. As tour operator, Seauton stood into close contact with for instance the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If they gave the go-ahead just before our departure, there would be no problem. And that is how it went. At the end of March 2001, we took off by plane with about 120 MCT students and teachers to Seattle.
In Seattle, we had a well-varied program: a visit to Microsoft Redmond, University of Washington, Olympic National Park, Valve, Boeing, Digipen, EMP, an NBA game …
5 years later…
Five years in a row, we flew to Seattle (with a top year of 180 students!). In 2006, we chose a different destination so we could also visit other major players in the IT sector. Our new destination was San Francisco, where the offices of Adobe and Cisco are located.
At the end of March 2006, we took off with a fantastic group of students for the very first time to San Francisco and Silicon Valley to – there too – work our way through an amazing program. Of course, in San Francisco, we visited Adobe and Cisco; but also visits to Stanford University, Electronic Arts, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, Yosemite National Park … were scheduled.
10 years later…
Over the years, other majors came and they too offered their students the unique chance of going to the USA. Since a couple of years, this trip has become a valuable Howest educational trip: HOWESTgoesUSA. On this tenth anniversary, DAE, IPO, Devine and NMCT/TI each have a complete program with numerous top companies! The students will visit Adobe, Cisco, Google, Facebook, EA Games, NVidia, VMWare, Samsung, Protocafe, Betterplace, IDEO, Microsoft, Zynga …
Besides the many unique company visits; we will also visit the National Parks. Also an NBA game is a must in this program.