Students Take on the Howard Terminal: Eco-Friendly Proposals and Real-World Pitching

The Howard Terminal in Oakland is up for grabs, and the students in Econ Honors and Marine Science class are here to save the Day! Forget simply storage units, the students have been busy creating mock proposals to turn this space into something that actually gets people excited. 

The students took a field trip to visit the 50 acre site to get their creative juices flowing. That's right - 50 acres, you can fit 38 football fields or a huge Costco in there. This field trip included taking a ferry to the port as well as visiting the SF port and learning about the sea level rise effects on both locations. Seeing the space first hand helped them visualize what could be built there and how it can serve the Oakland community. 

One of the participants, Matilde R.C. ‘25 said, “This was a very educational experience. Exploring the San Francisco port as well as the Oakland port gave me perspective and ideas of what I should make for a proposal.” Another student who was part of the Marine Science class explored the difference in rising sea levels at the SF port and the Oakland port explained, “Both ports had a significant impact from the rising sea levels and it was very interesting and educational to be able to see the effect in person.” 

The role of these assignments was to create a pitch in a week for the Howard Terminal, that not only was a good space to be able to draw attention, but to be environmentally friendly to help stop sea level rise. The teacher, Mr. Erspamer, said, "I wanted the students to experience the site and see some of the complexities of land-use planning first hand, as well as be able to conduct mini focus groups and ask local business owners and patrons what they might want out of the site." 

These students have worked for weeks and came up with some pretty ambitious ideas, including turning the Howard Terminal into everything from Top Golf to a UC Berkeley campus extension, and even an amphitheater. 

To add a professional touch, the Econ class recently welcomed experts who had pitched real world proposals for the Howard Terminal, along with some Drew School faculty, to judge the students' ideas and ask insightful questions. 

This project was due the exact same week that the actual proposals for the Port were due, and gave the students a taste of how a real-world firm would create a proposal to submit in response to an RFP. The students now anxiously await the Port of Oakland's real-life decision for how to develop the site!