Photo by Jack Hutcheson
Her daughter Susan is the most powerful woman at Google (GOOG). Her daughter Anne started 23andMe, a company that dissects your DNA makeup. Her daughter Janet is a PhD anthropologist and epidemiologist.
You have to figure that Esther Wojcicki taught her daughters pretty well.
The mother of Silicon Valley's well-known Wojcicki sisters is, in fact, being honored today, Digital Learning Day, as one of a small group of "great teachers" who use technology effectively in the classroom. The full-day webcast, including a town hall hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, showcases how technology can improve learning in the U.S.
Wojcicki –or Woj, as she is known at Palo Alto High School in California—has been ahead of that curve ever since she created the school's journalism program in 1984 and championed "learning by doing," as she says. "The teacher needs to be a facilitator, a coach, not a lecturer," Woj explains.
As you might guess, Woj applied her education philosophy to raising her daughters. "My advice to all of them," she says, "was that journalism taught them how to think, how to get to the most important information first, and how to write clearly and quickly." She didn't expect any of them to be journalists (or anything in particular since she sought to empower them to make their own career choices). "But I always felt that if they could learn to write well, it would help them think clearly—which would help them in any profession they chose."
The Wojcicki girls learned to write by taking journalism at Gunn High School. Janet and Susan (the Google SVP who ranks No. 28 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list) worked on the school newspaper, the Oracle, while Anne, her mom proudly recalls, rose to top editor and also won a scholarship for her sports stories. Today, besides heading her genetics company, Anne has another claim to fame of sorts: She is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
Speaking of genes, they are clearly good here. (Dad Stanley is a big-deal physicist who taught at Stanford and is now leading an experiment to challenge Einstein's theories; Woj, the daughter of Jewish-Russian immigrants, was the first in her family to attend college and went on to collect graduate degrees galore.) But besides the lucky DNA, the Wojcicki daughters also benefitted from mom's urging them to learn independently. As Woj recalls, "We used to go to the library with a laundry basket and fill it up with books every week. Susan still has the laundry basket."
In the 90s, when the tech boom transformed Silicon Valley and the world, the Wojcickis were one of the first families in town to get a computer—a Mac. And Woj steered her daughters to the web. "The idea was not to wait around for the teacher to explain something if you didn't understand it, but to see if you learn it on your own," she says.
Today, of course, independent learning is easier than ever—for everyone. "Kids can use the Khan Academy," Woj notes. "But there are millions of Open Education Resources on the web that will help students learn anything from a foreign language to grammar."
You can catch Esther Wojcicki in action, teaching and sharing her thoughts about technology and education, today, 10-11:30 a.m. EST, at DigitalLearningDay.org.
What companies did Warren Buffett put on his wish list for Santa Claus?
The secret is out.
The Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) chief sent a photo of himself, perched on Santa's lap, and named several companies that he apparently believes will be great stocks to own in 2012.
Under the header, "Santa - 2011," Buffett listed Exxon Mobil (XOM), Wells Fargo (WF)--both companies in which he already owns shares--and Google (GOOG). No public records MORE
Patricia Sellers - Jan 4, 2012 10:35 AM ET
Mobile/local/social is the web's sweet spot right now. And Google's Marissa Mayer is in the middle of it.
Credit: Asa Mathat
We told you how Mayer engineered the acquisition of Zagat. That could turn out to be a very smart deal if Google gets us searching and sharing and mapping our ways to restaurants even more than we do today.
At the Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner in Silicon Valley last week, MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 5, 2011 11:21 AM ET
Photo Credit: Asa Mathat
Marissa Mayer has been a pioneer in the unofficial "Geek is Chic" movement. Google's (GOOG) first female engineer, who is now the company's VP in charge of all things local, has appeared in Vogue, rocked the cover of Fortune's 40-Under-40 issue, and been nominated for Vanity Fair's 2011 International Best Dressed List. She is an angel investor in female-founded companies like Minted and One King's Lane. MORE
Colleen Leahey, Reporter - Dec 1, 2011 11:59 AM ET
Google's Dan Cross in Afghanistan Credit: U.S. Marine Corps
Veteran's Day is an ideal time to hear from one of those rare folks who combine corporate and military careers. Dan Cross, a software engineer at Google (GOOG) and a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, took a leave to serve active duty in Afghanistan, came home a year ago, and brought back lessons that he couldn't have learned in MORE
Patricia Sellers - Nov 11, 2011 10:09 AM ET
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has become the go-to adviser for aspiring young women in business. Her view, which she expressed in an on-stage interview with me at the recent Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit: "Women don't take enough risks. Men are just 'foot on the gas pedal,'" she said, adding, "We're not going to close the achievement gap until we close the ambition gap."
Indeed, Sandberg's own career path--from the U.S. MORE
Patricia Sellers - Oct 28, 2011 10:04 AM ET
Mayer, in red, with Chef Gary Danko (middle), and 100 Mile Month champs Photo by Googler Wesley Chan
Last Monday evening, in the backyard of her Silicon Valley home, Marissa Mayer stood before a crowd of 200 fellow Googlers and their significant others, fed them roast quail and herb-crusted roast bison loin, and feted them for going mobile.
"We walked more than once around the earth at the equator—or MORE
Patricia Sellers - Aug 29, 2011 1:06 PM ET
Most women don't go for it, career-wise, like the guys do. Sukhinder Singh Cassidy breaks that mold. A onetime star at Google (GOOG), where was president of Asia-Pacific and Latin American operations, she has restlessly rotated through the startup world--from Amazon.com (AMZN) to OpenTV to News Corp.'s (NWS) BSkyB to Yodlee, a financial-services company that she co-founded, to Polyvore, a fashion site where she was CEO last year until quitting MORE
Patricia Sellers - Aug 1, 2011 1:17 PM ET
FORTUNE -- Last week's Fortune Most Powerful Women dinner in Manhattan convened established stars, like Martha Stewart and Barbara Walters, with rising stars, like Chelsea Clinton and Barbara Bush. Two daughters of political dynasties converging in the same orbit.
And then there were 26 rising-star women from across the developing world--each a participant in the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring program. These young women were in the U.S. shadowing MORE
Patricia Sellers - May 31, 2011 12:09 PM ET
by Patricia Sellers
Credit: Asa Mathat
While rumors keep swirling about Yahoo (YHOO) merging with AOL (AOL) in a deal that would include private equity, don't hold your breath. A source close to Yahoo told me today that neither AOL nor private equity buyers have contacted the company to discuss a potential deal.
Meanwhile, Yahoo news that should transpire sooner: layoffs. Sources tell me that Yahoo next week plans to announce 10% MORE
Patricia Sellers - Dec 6, 2010 2:48 PM ET
For the latest on the most influential women in business, philanthropy, government, and the arts, like us on Facebook. 
In a funny and candid interview, Google VP Marissa Mayer explains how she got to the top. Watch
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns shares how she once accepted a job with Dell but ended up staying with Xerox. Watch
Pattie Sellers has written some of Fortune's most talked-about cover stories, including "Oprah's Next Act," "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" "The $100 Billion Woman" (Melinda Gates), "MySpace Cowboys," Martha Stewart ("I cannot be destroyed"), Ted Turner ("Gone with the Wind") and Oprah Winfrey ("Oprah Inc."). Since its launch in 1998, Pattie has helped oversee Fortune's "Most Powerful Women" cover package.
A specialist at dissecting larger-than-life personalities, she has also profiled former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack, and countless CEOs.
Pattie co-chairs the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, the preeminent gathering of women leaders in business, philanthropy, government, academia, and the arts. She started at Fortune in 1984, covering the big brand companies.
In Pattie's blog, Postcards, she provides insight into the lives of super-achievers through commentary, career advice, and Guest Posts by CEOs and other leaders.
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Fortune Most Powerful Women
Sheryl Sandberg:
Gina Bianchini
