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Rocket City: The Next Silicon
Valley?
By Rosalie M. Lane, Extension
Housing & Urban CRD Specialist and Erica Fields, Graduate
Assistant
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 Did
you know that Huntsville, Alabama is possibly just one high-tech
Company away from being considered a "Southeastern Silicon
Valley?" Did you know the groups of advanced technological
companies in the area pay some of the highest wages in the state?
Did you know that most of the employees working in these high-income
positions moved to Huntsville from across the nation and from
overseas? Did you know that Huntsville, located in Madison County,
Alabama, is home to Cummings Research Park, "one of the
world's leading science and technology business parks,"
"Cummings Research Park a model for transforming research
into business success."
What classifies a location as a Silicon
Valley? Well, the origin of that name is the best place to begin.
"Silicon Valley" was coined in 1971 by a journalist
named "Don Hoefler in a series of articles he wrote for
the trade journal Electric News." He impressed his
readers by inferring that the California valley "situated
south of San Francisco... was home to the world's largest concentration
of semiconductor manufacturers and computer-related industry
in the area." The name "Silicon Valley" stuck
and is now geographically located between the Santa Cruz and
Diablo mountains. This area is the home of hundreds of companies
that comprise 33 percent of the region's high-tech industries,
boasting an average annual salary of $75,302. Following close
behind is Huntsville's own Cummings Research Park (CRP).
CRP is also the home of Fortune 500 companies
that make up approximately 220 of the high-tech companies in
the area, such as Computer Science Corporation, Intergraph, Electronic
Data Systems, NASA, as well as the Redstone Arsenal. Perhaps
Huntsville needs a computer chip manufacturer in the area before
it officially becomes a true "Silicon Valley," but
it is already a Mecca for tremendous educational and employment
opportunities.
For example, the city offers many educational programs up to
the post-doctorate level. Local area schools, universities, and
colleges, including Alabama A&M University, University of
Alabama-Huntsville and Birmingham, Oakwood College, Faulkner
University, Calhoun Community College, and the J. F. Drake State
Technical College, are continually poised to educate and train
Alabamians to enter high-paying technological careers. Who wouldn't
be tempted to explore living in the city identified by the Foreign
Direct Investment Magazine (April 2007) as a "small
city of the future," and certainly one of America's best-kept
secrets.
With a large concentration of a highly
educated and skilled workforce, it's not hard to believe that
1 out of 3 individuals is employed with professional, scientific,
or technical services. The educated workforce has occupied more
than 5,100 jobs in computer science, mathematics, engineering,
science, and physics since the 1950s. Today, more than 5000 students
attending local area schools have declared majors in one of these
fields of study as well.
Huntsville is also the home to beautiful
mountains, valleys, woodlands and rivers, including the Monte
Sano National Park, Flint River, and the Tennessee River. In
addition, the Von Braun Center and other establishments offer
a myriad of entertainment from sporting events to Broadway plays
and symphony concerts. With a growing technological industry
and entertainment features, it's no wonder the city has been
listed in numerous magazines, including Forbes, as an
ideal place to live, work, and raise a family.
To prepare hard-to-reach audiences on
how to improve their quality of life and to take advantage of
the opportunities that cities like Huntsville have to offer,
Extension specialists and urban regional agents develop and implement
outreach efforts that provide:
- Information and preparation to access
training and job shadowing opportunities that could lead to employment
in technological areas.
- Multi-phased training in community resource
development, and workforce and economic development by using
Extension resources such as WECAN4U.net, Welcome to the Real
World, the Job Hunting Kit, and the WORKS FOR ME: Employment
Life Skills Curriculum.
Additionally, in 2000, Extension's Urban
Affairs Unit implemented a Youth Career Summit designed to encourage
high school females to enter nontraditional and technical occupations
in which they only comprised 15 percent of the workforce. As
a result of this program, urban regional Extension agents serve
as catalysts to increase the number of females considering and
attending technological schools. Because of the program's popularity
among males students in Houston County, the Summit has been extended
to high school males as well.
Extension will continue to do its part
to apprise, inform, and educate its hard-to-reach audience on
how to take advantage of valuable technological resources needed
in the area of research and technology.
To learn more about these resources,
please visit www.aces.edu/urban or contact Extension Housing
and Urban Specialist Urban Rosalie Lane at (256) 372-4982 or
laneros@aces.edu.
References
City of Huntsville, Alabama. (2007).
Community information: Prepared for relocating U.S. military/government
personnel and contractors. Office of the Mayor.
Centrallo, Carol & Lane, Rosalie
M. (1998). WORKS FOR ME: Employment life skills curriculum.
Alabama Cooperative Extension System.
Ross, Ian. (19 December 1992). Sun
sets over Silicon Valley. New Scientist. Retrieved
September 20, 2007.
Netherlands Business Support Office.
(2007). Silicon
valley. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
(2003). Chambers of events.
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