Dedicated internet denizens or at least anybody who may have watched the (not entirely historically accurate) 2010 bio-pic “The Social Network” would know one fact about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. It is that he dropped out of Harvard University, the place where his social network had a humble start before growing into the giant that it is today. Now he’s become a prominent voice in the state of global affairs, a truly influential figure due to his life’s work. And he’s even going back into his old stomping grounds on graduation day to deliver the commencement speech, getting a degree (honorary) out of it too.
Drop-outs who influenced recent history
It should be remembered that Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard on his second year and moved to Palo Alto, California in order to build his startup company that would become the leading social media network today. On Tuesday March 7, Harvard University announced that Facebook's founder is scheduled to deliver the commencement speech to this year’s graduating class on May 25. The statement, given by Harvard president Drew Faust, spoke of how Zuckerberg’s leadership in the development of what originally was called “thefacebook.com”, went on to significantly change how social interaction is done all over the world. “Few inventions in modern times can rival Facebook in its far-reaching impact on how people around the globe interact with one another,” he said.
Needless to say, Facebook itself is quite jubilant about the esteemed honor being extended by Harvard to their founder. Zuckerberg even talked about it briefly on his FB page, jokingly referring to it as him going back to school. As it stands, he will also get his honorary degree for giving this speech, a full decade plus one year after dropping out.
Funny vid
That wasn’t quite the end of for Zuckerberg’s fun though. He also posted the video of a little skit he made with fellow Harvard dropout – and philanthropist/founder of Microsoft – Bill Gates. They joked about their nearly similar circumstances, leaving an Ivy-league school before graduating in order to start their own respective tech revolutions.
Gates himself became a commencement speaker for Harvard’s graduates some 30 years after his own dropping-out. One of his “batch-mates” that year was Priscilla Chan, aka Mrs. Zuckerberg. Mark himself couldn’t help but bring up this fact by asking Gates, "They know we actually didn't graduate?
Well, Zuckerberg of Facebook will now be joining Gates and other celebrities who have been commencement speakers for Harvard. Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Bloomberg are in good company.
