Yvonne Boice Wow’s Audience Attending Wozniak Event
By: Kay Renz
Yvonne Boice loves a challenge.
As the event chair for the Palm Beach State College Foundation’s STEAM initiative launch, she knew that having Apple Inc’s co-founder Steve Wozniak as the guest speaker meant there were high expectations for this luncheon, which ended up raising more than $500,000.
“We were practically sold out from the moment we announced that “the Woz” was our guest of honor,” said Boice, a Boca Raton resident, businesswoman and philanthropist. “As the event chair I knew I had to create an atmosphere worthy of one of the most innovative geniuses of our day. I had to pull out all the stops.”
And that she did. As guests entered the Cohen Pavilion at the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts you could hear audible gasps of surprise and delight – the ballroom had been transformed into a visual wonderland paying homage to the themes of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math—the STEAM disciplines.
Each massive wall of the ballroom was festooned with art depicting signature elements from the STEAM disciplines, every table was draped with cloths depicting the solar system, and even the desserts featured chocolates depicting Einstein’s famous equation.
“I knew I had to make an impact worthy of our guest,” Boice said. Wozniak seemed overwhelmed by the magnificent display and the reception he received from the over 660 guests.
The Apple co-founder, who was the engineer behind the famed Apple I and Apple II computers, easily won the audience over with his self-effacing manner and humor. He conversed for almost an hour with event emcee, Felicia Rodriguez of WPBF Ch. 25, on a wide range of topics, including many questions submitted by PBSC students.
While Woz stressed the importance of the STEAM disciplines for our students to remain competitive and prosperous, he also reminded the students of the essentials: finding their passion in life and being a kind well-liked person. Those themes he entwined throughout many of his personal stories, as he told of his early years in high school, his initial job with Hewlett- Packard and his now legendary partnership with Steve Jobs.
“Wozniak was a magnificent speaker,” Boice said. “His words were heartfelt and his insights into the future were truly inspiring. He made us realize how much we have to look forward to and how our students really need our guidance and support to help them achieve that next level of success. Our hope with the new scholarship launch at PBSC is to give our students a chance to excel and lead us to the next great thing.”
Captions: (top) Dr. Bernadette Russell, Provost Palm Beach State College Boca Raton
campus, Yvonne Boice, Al Zucaro, Constance Scott, Boca Raton City
Council member (bottom) Yvonne Boice and Steve Wozniak
