Sundar Pichai Asks Students Of 2020 To Have Hope And Passion For Technology

With the whole world under lockdown, several students who were graduating this year won¡¯t be getting the farewell they expected.

With most of us participating in commencement speeches from their homes. However, renowned artists and business people have tried to inspire these students.

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Recently. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai was one of the speakers on an online commencement speech, along with former US President Barrack Obama, Michelle Obama, Beyonce, BTS as well as Lady Gaga, among several others.

You will prevail

In the speech, Pichai congratulated the students for celebrating all the knowledge they¡¯ve gained, while also talking about the pain that everyone¡¯s experiencing, either due to COVID-19 or due to the civil unrest in the nation. But he asked students to be hopeful despite these dark times, claiming ¡®you will prevail¡¯.

He gave instances of previous classes in times when the world was struck with struggles as worse as today. He explained, ¡°One hundred years ago, the class of 1920 graduated into the end of a deadly pandemic. Fifty years ago, the class of 1970 graduated in the midst of the Vietnam War. And nearly 20 years ago, the class of 2001 graduated just months before 9/11.¡±

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He added, ¡°There are notable examples like this. They had to overcome new challenges, and in all cases, they prevailed. The long arc of history tells us we have every reason to be hopeful. So, be hopeful.¡±

When Sundar Pichai came to US

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai also shared his experience when he first came to the US and how having access to computing truly blew his mind and the kind of things he wanted to do to change the world.

¡°The year I arrived at Stanford was the same year the browser Mosaic was released, which would popularize the world wide web and the internet. The summer I left was the same summer that a graduate student named Sergey Brin met a prospective engineering student named Larry Page," Pichai recollected.

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He added, ¡°These two moments would profoundly shape the rest of my life. But at the time, I didn¡¯t know it. It took me a while to realize that the internet would be the single best way to make technology accessible to more people. As soon as I did, I changed course and decided to pursue my dreams at Google.¡±

He also touched upon the new barriers he tried to overcome, break the convention to come to the US and learn to be a part of Google. Sundar Pichai spoke about how his passion for tech was able to drive this forward.

He concluded stating, ¡°I know you¡¯re getting a lot of advice today. So let me leave you with mine: Be open ¡­ be impatient ¡­ be hopeful. If you can do that, history will remember the Class of 2020 not for what you lost, but for what you changed. You have the chance to change everything. I am optimistic you will.¡±