New Delhi: Google CEO Sundar Pichai, addressing a virtual graduation ceremony, told students to not lose hope amidst the pandemic, adding that they will prevail.
Speaking at the virtual commencement event – Dear Class of 2020 –streamed by YouTube, the Google CEO told students ‘You will prevail’, adding that in bleak moments like these, it will be difficult to find hope.
Pichai acknowledged that things about technology may frustrate and make the students impatient. However, he said they should not lose their impatience.
"Don't lose that impatience. It will create the next technology revolution and enable you to build things my generation could never dream of,” he added.
YouTube streamed the "Dear Class of 2020," a virtual commencement event bringing together inspirational leaders, speakers, celebrities and YouTube creators to celebrate graduates, their families, and their communities.
Pichai expressed his happiness over sharing the virtual stage with former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, singer Lady Gaga among many prominent personalities who addressed the students in the virtual ceremony.
In his speech, Pichai also recounted his humble roots and the challenges he faced in life.
“I grew up without much access to technology. We didn’t get our first telephone till I was 10. I did not have regular access to computer until I came to America for graduate school. And our television, when we got one, had only one channel.”
He also remembered how his father saved up his whole year’s salary to buy his plane ticket to US.
"My father spent the equivalent of a year's salary on my plane ticket to the U.S. so I could attend Stanford. It was my first time ever on a plane," Pichai said, adding that when he eventually landed in California, things were not as he had imagined.
"America was expensive. A phone call back home was more than $2 a minute, and a backpack cost the same as my dad's monthly salary in India," he recounted.
Pichai, who joined Google in 2004, has an engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology, holds a master's degree from the Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School.
