Apple CEO Tim Cook Visits Florida Apple Store and Meets WWDC Scholar

Apple CEO Tim Cook today visited the Mall at Millenia Apple Store in Orlando, Florida, where he met up with 16-year-old Liam Rosenfeld, one of the WWDC scholars who will be attending Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this June.

Cook was in Florida for an event that saw SAP and Apple announce an expanded partnership focused on new enterprise apps taking advantage of technologies like machine learning and AR. Cook apparently visited the ‌Apple Store‌ after the conference. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Cook had a short chat with Rosenfeld, who called the meeting "an amazing surprise."

"He has a quality that I think is on a short list of characteristics that drive success, and that is curiosity," said Cook, after talking with Liam about the creation of the coding club.

Cook went on to say that WWDC scholarships provide Apple with a way to contribute to the growing need for a tech workforce.

"You need public, private, non-governmental organizations working together because this is not a trivial transformation that needs to happen here," he said. "We have an obligation. We are fortunate to have had some success."

Apple offered 350 scholarships to students and STEM organization members for WWDC 2019. Each scholarship includes a free WWDC ticket, free accommodations in San Jose, California, near the McEnery Convention Center, and a free one-year membership to Apple's developer program.