Considering that a cup of coffee with Tim Cook goes for hundreds of thousands of dollars, you’ve got to be pretty lucky as an up-and-coming coder to get some quality time with Apple’s CEO.
That’s exactly the situation that 16-year-old Liam Rosenfeld found himself in this week, however. One of the 350 U.S. student recipients of a WWDC 2019 scholarship, Ronsenfeld had the rare opportunity to meet and talk with Apple’s honcho.
“I was not expecting that at all,” Rosenfeld told the Orlando Sentinel. “It was such an amazing surprise.”
Cook was attending the SAP conference, where Apple was revealing new enterprise apps. Afterward, he visited the Apple Millenia store in Orlando, Florida. That’s where he had his sitdown meeting with Rosenfeld.
Rosenfeld, a sophomore at Lyman High School, started up his own coding club. He also has one app, Image to ASCII Art, in the App Store. A couple more, including a game that teaches instrument tuning, are on the way.
Thrilled to meet the talented @liamrosenfeld in Orlando today. He’s got a bright future ahead. See you at #WWDC19, Liam! https://t.co/aOOSJbtFjC
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 7, 2019
“He has a quality that I think is on a short list of characteristics that drive success, and that is curiosity,” Cook said, describing Ronsenfeld. After Cook tweeted a link to the Orlando Sentinel article, Rosenfeld tweeted back, “Had an awesome time! Thank you for your hospitality!”
Tim Cook’s drive for coding
During his tenure at Apple, Cook has made it a focus to push the importance of coding-related education. Speaking to the Sentinel, he said that:
“You need public, private, non-governmental organizations working together because this is not a trivial transformation that needs to happen here. We have an obligation. We are fortunate to have had some success.”
WWDC 2019 will kick off Monday, June 3 and run through Friday, June 7. Scholarship recipients get the cost of the ticket, lodging and sometimes travel expenses covered by Apple. For a glimpse at what it’s like to be a scholarship winner at WWDC, check out this exclusive diary blog from a previous specially selected student.
Source: Orlando Sentinel
