The Silicon Valley Program consists of four courses in an off-campus residential setting taught by Claremont McKenna faculty. Students from the other Claremont Colleges should consult with their respective Registrars’ office and/or department chair about college-specific conditions for participating.
All students will be enrolled in the following required courses:
ECON 65 CM / ECON 165 CM
Innovation Management / Industrial Organization
This cross-listed course can be taken as a level 1 or a level 2 economics course; the difference between the two lies in the assignments. This course uses economics to study firm strategy and industry evolution in contexts where innovation is important. We discuss imperfect competition and the main sources of competitive advantage, describe several stylized facts about innovation, consider factors that impact the generation and diffusion of innovations, study dynamic strategic interaction and how high-tech firms and industries evolve, and develop an understanding of the role and impacts of public policies in innovative industries. ECON 165 serves as an elective for the finance sequence at CMC, counts toward the Science and Management major, and requires successful completion of ECON 101 CM Intermediate Microeconomics or equivalent.
- Prerequisite: ECON 50 CM or equivalent for ECON 65 CM / ECON 101 CM or equivalent for ECON 165 CM
- Instructor: Filson, D
- Major Credit: CMC ECON = 1.0 Level 1 elective for ECON 65 CM / CMC ECON = 1.0 Level 2 elective for ECON 165 CM / CMC Science Management = 1.0 core requirement for ECON 165 CM
- Sequence Credit: 1.0 CMC Financial Economics elective for ECON 165 CM
- Graduation Credit: 5Cs = 1.0
- Graded or Credit / No Credit Letter Grade
LEAD 150 CM
Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley
This course provides an overview of leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship theories and constructs, with applications and implications for leading in innovative and cutting-edge organizations in Silicon Valley. Topics will range from the history of Silicon Valley, to leading creative teams, to entrepreneurial start-ups, and the leadership skills necessary to foster innovative organizations. A central theme will be to equip students with the knowledge and skills to be effective leaders in innovative organizations. This course satisfies the capstone requirement of the leadership sequence at CMC.
- Prerequisite: None
- Instructor: taught by Thompson, S with contributions from Riggio, R and Sherman, S
- Major Credit: None
- Sequence Credit: 1.0 CMC Leadership capstone course
- Graduation Credit: 5Cs = 1.0
- Graded or Credit / No Credit: Letter Grade
INT 030 CM
Silicon Valley Program Internship
This course integrates a full-time internship with career coaching, class discussions, and other professional development activities. This experience complements the other coursework in the program to enhance students’ understanding of the strategies and practices of innovative organizations, firm-level innovation ecosystems, high-tech markets and the regional system of innovation in Silicon Valley and the surrounding area. The professional development activities enhance the students’ understanding of and expertise in a set of career readiness competencies. Internships are obtained in consultation with the program director, and host organizations should either be pursuing innovations themselves or supporting the innovative activities of others (e.g. venture capitalists, consultants, law firms, etc.). Whether credit is earned depends on the policies of each campus. This course satisfies the experiential requirement of the leadership sequence at CMC. Dependent on prior approval, this course could also potentially satisfy the capstone requirement of the Data Science major/sequence.
- Prerequisite: None
- Instructor: Contributions from the core SVP faculty and staff (Filson D, Thompson, S, Moussa N, LaPierre R)
- Major Credit: None
- Sequence Credit: 1.0 CMC Leadership experiential course; 1.0 CMC Data Science capstone (with approval)
- Graduation Credit: CMC = 1.0; POM = None; PIT = None; SCR = 1.0
- Graded or Credit / No Credit: Letter Grade
Students will choose one structured independent study course:
Offerings vary by semester depending on student interests and faculty availability (ECON 98 and 198 are always offered). The following list includes courses we anticipate will be offered for Spring 2023. Most students select a preapproved course, but students may be able to arrange a unique independent study in an area of their choice through an appropriate arrangement with a Claremont-based professor. For example, recent students have pursued tailored independent studies in Economics, Math and Psychology. If some Claremont-based courses continue to be taught online, then it might be possible for an SVP student to obtain approval to select a Claremont-based course as their fourth course. In such cases, it will be vital to ensure that the course is taught in an asynchronous way (to avoid conflicts with the work day), and it will also be important to assess whether the deliverables associated with the course are likely to be manageable given the student’s other responsibilities during the SVP semester.
ECON 98 CM / 198 CM
Organizing for Innovation / Economics of Innovation
This cross-listed course can be taken as a level 1 or a level 2 economics course. This course guides students in the Silicon Valley Program through several individual and group projects grounded in economics that provide insights into how firms and other entities organize for innovation. The material considers how firm decisions, organizational structures, public policies and the surrounding environment impact the nature and amount of the innovations an organization can generate along with its ability to appropriate returns. Links between the course content and the internship experiences are developed: the internship settings are like “labs” that provides examples of the concepts and frameworks developed in the course. For this purpose, students must interpret their internship experiences broadly and learn about their organizations and the corresponding business environments, not just the internship tasks and responsibilities.
- Prerequisite: ECON 50 CM or equivalent for ECON 98 CM / ECON 101 CM or equivalent for ECON 198 CM
- Instructor: Filson, D
- Major Credit: CMC ECON = 1.0 Level 1 elective for ECON 98 CM / CMC ECON 1.0 Level 2 elective for ECON 198 CM
- Sequence Credit: 1.0 CMC Leadership breadth course
- Graduation Credit: 5Cs = 1.0
- Graded or Credit / No Credit: Letter Grade
ECON 181 CM
Fintech Practicum
This course is a team-based, project-based course providing an opportunity for the students to collaborate with industry clients (banks, investment firms, startups, other financial institutions, other non-financial businesses, non-profit agencies, and public agencies) to solve real-world financial problems using technology (such as data analytics, machine learning, software prototypes, market studies for data collection, etc.). Teams of three to five students, under the direction of a Faculty Advisor and the Practicum Director, will be working on client’s project. In addition to the regularly scheduled class meetings, the course requires an additional 75-150 minutes of scheduled team meetings each week with the Faculty Advisor and/or the sponsoring Client(s). This course will count towards the Financial Economics Sequence requirements and the BAMA degree requirements.
- Prerequisite: ECON 125 CM, CSCI 040 CM (or equivalent), and instructor permission
- Instructor: Dass, N
- Major Credit: CMC ECON = 1.0 Level 2 elective
- Sequence Credit: 1.0 CMC Financial Economics Sequence elective; 1.0 CMC Data Science capstone course (replaces DS 180 with pre-approval)
- Graduation Credit: 5Cs = 1.0
- Graded or Credit / No Credit: Letter Grade