Jose Francisco

Jose met Lebron James in fifth grade during a school trip to watch the Miami Heat play the Toronto Raptors. Once the game concluded, all the students had one chance to shoot a free-throw. Jose threw the ball, which hit the rim and bounced directly onto the floor.

Outside of his one basketball accomplishment, Jose spent his time in school trying to have as much fun with his friends as possible. He traveled once a month with his speech and debate team, learned archery when he turned eighteen, and continues to perform various arts—from piano to salsa dancing.

After graduating Valedictorian, he studied Computer Science at Stanford University, where he received his Bachelors and Masters degrees. After working in places like Twitter and Financial Tech startups, he eventually found his way back to working in the world of Artificial Intelligence. Although he started out as a software engineer, his peers and bosses realized that he had quite the aptitude for public speaking. As a result, he made the switch from the Engineering team to the Marketing team, where he once again travels to various cities each month to give speeches about technology.

Jose received the Centennial Teaching Assistant Award from the Stanford School of Engineering for his pedagogical contributions to students of all ages—freshmen and PhD candidates alike. He was nominated for this award by both his professors as well as his students. Likewise, he won the Stanford Award of Excellence for his “sincere commitment to the university through involvement, leadership, and extraordinary Stanford spirit.” Today, he lives in San Francisco where he continues to have fun with friends, engage with his community, and cheer on Lebron James. (Don’t tell Steph Curry.)