Steve Jobs’s Widow Laurene Powell Will Attend Tonight’s State Of The Union Address

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It is common for the President of the United States to honor American heroes by inviting them to the annual State of the Union address. No surprise, then, that President Obama is tipping his hat to the legacy of Apple founder Steve Jobs at tonight’s State of the Union address by inviting Jobs’s widow Laurene Powell Jobs to share First Lady Michelle Obama’s box at the event.

The event is believed to be Powell’s first public appearance since her husband’s death.

Although Powell is not mentioned on the invite list for tonight’s event specifically in relation to her husband’s accomplishments, it’s known that the nation’s education system will be a special focus of President Obama’s address tonight.

Laurene Powell Jobs has been invited as founder of the Emerson Collective, an organization focused on harnessing the potential of individuals from underserved communities to help them build a better life. She’s also there as the president of College Track, an after-school program she founded in 1997 to prepare underserved high school students for success in college.

As for her late husband’s contributions to education, they are too numerous to count, culminating in the recent Guggenheim event aimed at promoting inexpensive digital textbooks through iBooks and iBooks Author, as well as making the classroom experience into an app through iTunes U.

Other important individuals to be acknowledged tonight include Warren Buffet’s secretary Debbi Bosanek, whom the billionaire has used as an example of how his employees pay more taxes than he does, and Mark Kelly, the husband of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in a shooting last year.

Laurene Powell Jobs will not be the only person invited who has strong ties to the Apple community: Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger will also be in attendance.

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