SAN FRANCISCO - Straight off the plane Wednesday afternoon, the Columbia women's basketball team headed to Zynga's headquarters in downtown San Francisco for a tour of its facilities and a career-building workshop. 

Zynga is the world's leading social game developer with 253 million average monthly active users spanning 175 countries. The Lions were guided through the six-floor office building that houses 1,200 offices, a full gym featuring a half-court basketball court and cafeteria by Columbia alumni Renee Jackson '99CC. 

Following the tour Jackson, who currently works at the company that developed Farmville and Words With Friends on their legal team, led a panel of previous women's basketball players making the transition from academia to career. 

Jackson was joined on the panel by Michele Gage '08CC and former Bowling Green standout Whitney Taylor. Individually the three former women's basketball Division I players discussed how their experiences as student-athletes helped them transition into the work place. 

During the question and answer portion they trio answered the 'how do you know what you're interested in?' was the most popular topic.The question was uniquelly answerd by the three keynote speakers, however one common emphasis was that inspiration can come from anything and anywhere so its important not to shut a door on any opportunity that could be opened. 

The Lions continue their visit to the west coast as they tip-off their 2014-15 season Friday, Nov. 14 at San Francisco at 10 p.m.