Harvard Picks Dropout Mark Zuckerberg As 2017 Graduation Speaker

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By Daniel J. Solomon March 8, 2017

Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t a model student at Harvard – he ditched school as a sophomore to work on Facebook and before that got dragged before a university disciplinary board for making a Web site where undergrads could rate each others’s looks.

But nothing succeeds like success, and the social network founder will return to the Yard this May to deliver this year’s commencement address.

“Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership has profoundly altered the nature of social engagement worldwide. Few inventions in modern times can rival Facebook in its far-reaching impact on how people around the globe interact with one another,” University President Drew Faust said, explaining the selection in comments to The Harvard Gazette.

The school in Cambridge tends to be a draw for marquee speakers – last May it was Steven Spielberg who spoke to graduates. And Zuckerberg isn’t the first dropout to address the assembly – that honor belongs to another tech billionaire, Bill Gates.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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