Often referred to as, "the best factory tour in the lighting industry," another educational and innovative B-K University has come to a close.

Sixty-three lighting designers, architects, landscape architects, engineers and industry related peers arrived in Central California on Thursday, March 16, 2017 for an intense and fun day of CEU-eligible courses at our Madera, California factory on St. Patrick’s Day. Attendees and instructors met up at Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp on the evening of the 16th, and B-K Lighting + TEKA Illumination hosted a relaxing meet n’ greet where attendees played our new "TEKA Toddy" trivia game.

The following morning was St. Patrick’s Day, and after a hearty breakfast that included the magically delicious Lucky Charms, students spent the day learning the “B-K Way” as they assembled, packed and shipped their very own Nite Star™ flood light, powder coated in Racer Green for the occasion!

From machining the body to gluing the cap, nothing was left out. In fact, our Nuva-sil lens adhesive is quite pricey and we’d like to give a special shout-out to Tom Deal of Clearview Land Design for his complete and utter disregard of $1634.97 worth of Nuva-sil while gluing a single cap! Thanks a lot, Tom!

Following an amazing day at the factory, our guests were treated to an incredible tour of the outdoors in our own backyard… Yosemite National Park. Choosing from hiking, snowshoeing, a bus tour, fly fishing, or photography class, all students were awe-inspired by the beauty and grace of the majestic Yosemite Valley. And after a gorgeous day in the Park, the Class of Spring 2017 returned to Tenaya Lodge for our semi-annual Grad-Nite, where we celebrated the accomplishments and new-found knowledge of our BKU friends.

BKU is jointly produced and coordinated through the efforts of the staff of five companies that include: B-K Lighting, TEKA Illumination, Star Finishes, Blue Dolphin Design and Engineering and Etendue Cafe. Since its inception in 2002, more than 1,600 lighting professionals have graduated from this one of a kind program and earned the title of "BKU Alumnus."

You can review past semesters along with events, courses and seminars at our dedicated B-K University website www.b-kuniversity.com