Yes Facebook owner is in the news once again. And this time there is no lawsuit or privacy issues or any other controversy. This time it is something good and positive. Mark Zuckerberg earns University Degree, twelve years after dropping out. The young billionaire was enrolled in Harvard. He dropped out of the university soon after creating Facebook, when the success of the social networking website, made it inevitable for him to invest all his time and energies in the then newly made website.
When he dropped out, he did not know he was dropping out for good. He just thought he was taking off some time and would return to complete his degree. However with the humungous and unprecedented success of his venture he could not complete his degree.
Now he is visiting the prestigious Harvard University to give the commencement address to the graduating class of 2017. And along with a thank you from the University for gracing the event, he would also be walking away with an honorary degree. The CEO of 400 billion dollar Facebook, Zuckerberg was enrolled in Harvard school’s computer science program. In the fall of 2005, he left the university to care for the budding website that entirely changed the social media scene and communication system of the world.
Of course Mark Zuckerberg is not the not prodigy who dropped out of university. Many big names in IT have had the same history. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College in Oregon before starting his company with Steve Wozniak in 1976. Bill Gates, a fellow Harvard dropout, also left school after just two years to co-found Microsoft with Paul Allen.
Bill Gates also came to Harvard to give a commencement speech. Incidentally, Mark was sitting in the audience at that time and listened to the speech. His listening to the speech has been made memorable in a biopic movie The social network.
So Mark took some advice from Bill about how to give a commencement speech and then shared the wisdom Bill had to offer with all of us. Here is the video
we are eagerly awaiting for the speech that mark will be giving at the Harvard University and at the same time congratulate him on getting the degree.
Here is a brief profile of Mark Zuckerberg
- As a teenager, he built a platform called Synapse Media Player that used machine learning to analyze a user’s listening preferences. The program was recognized by PC Magazine and earned him job offers from Microsoft and AOL.
- Zuckerberg graduated from Phillips Exeter Academyin New Hampshire with major in math and science.
- He enrolled in Harvardin 2002. In his sophomore year, he and a group of friends created a platform called com, initially designed as a social networking website for Harvard students and then expanded to other campuses.
- Zuckerberg and his cohorts then moved to Palo Alto, Calif., to rebrand their new company, now called Facebook. He intended to return to Harvard to complete his education but then the success of Facebook led him to devote his full energy to the company.
- He received many awardsand honors for his company. In 2010, Time magazine named him Person of the Year, and Vanity Fair magazine listed him among “the top 100 most influential people of the information age.” In 2016, Forbes magazine named him among its top 10 “World’s Most Powerful People.”
Besides all this Mark is a huge philanthropist. He has donated millions of dollars to education and technology startups and researches. On December 9, 2010, Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and investor Warren Buffet signed a promise they called “The Giving pledge “, in which they promised to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time, and invited others among the wealthy to donate 50% or more of their wealth to charity. The chronicle of Philanthropy placed Zuckerberg and his wife at the top of the magazine’s annual list of 50 most generous Americans for 2013, having donated roughly $1 billion to charity. However their biggest donation pledge came on December 1, 2015, Zuckerberg and Chan announced the birth of their daughter Max, and in an open letter to Max, they pledged to donate 99% of their Facebook shares, then valued at $45 billion, to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, their new organization that will focus on health and education. The donation will not be given immediately, but over the course of their lives.
In personal life Mark Zuckerberg is happily married to Pricilla Chan, who was a fellow student at Harvard and met Mark at a fraternity party. Pricilla is a graduate from medical school. They have one daughter together Maxima Chan Zuckerberg. Also part of their family is the adorable beast. Beast is a Puli or a Hungarian Sheepdog, from the foothills of Grants Pass, Oregon. He is an active pup who likes herding, playing and cuddling, according to his profile that has more than 2000 followers.
Mark with wife Priscilla and Beast
In 2010 a biographical film on the life of Mark Zuckerberg was made called The Social Network. The movie was directed by David Fincher and it won the Academy award for the best picture. In the picture Jesse Eisenberg portrays Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield is Eduardo Savrin who was Mark’s best friend who later sued him for Facebook rights.
Here is the trailer of the acclaimed movie
So three cheer the extra ordinary Mark Zuckerberg for creating the most addictive and beneficial website on the world wide web. He totally deserves the honorary degree.
Do you think Mark Zuckerberg deserves the degree? Will you listen to his commencement speech? Share with us in the comments section below.
