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Don’t chase money, chase making a difference: Zscaler CEO
Chaudhry, who’s an alumnus of IIT-BHU, shared his journey that began from a humble background to becoming a global technology icon, with the graduating students of BHU at its 104th convocation
“Don’t chase money, chase making a difference.” Zscaler founder and CEO Jay Chaudhry said this to the graduating students of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as he delivered the 104th Convocation address.
Chaudhry, who’s an alumnus of IIT-BHU, shared his journey from a humble background to becoming a global technology icon. He recalled how his parents, who were small-scale farmers, struggled to make sure that their children got a good education.
“Adversity makes you figure things out, what to do and how to do,” said Chaudhry while mentioning how adversities in his childhood helped him develop his work ethic.
Chaudhry advised the students to embrace resilience and learn continuously as they step into their futures.
Reflecting on his own experiences at BHU, Chaudhry spoke about his fond memories of the campus, walks along the ghats, and strolls in the Lanka area. Crediting BHU for his success, the 1980 pass-out inspired students to work hard, be diligent and honest, and strive with a positive outlook in life to achieve excellence.
Noting the technological advancements made by India in the recent decades, Chaudhary said students were future leaders and would be taking the on-going journey forward. “There will be ups and downs, but there are tons of opportunities that will come along. Those of you who grab them, work on them, figure out, will do extremely well,” he said.
The Zscaler founder acknowledged that more female students were conferred gold medals, mentioning that India needed to realize the power of women.
In his address, vice-chancellor Prof. Sudhir Kumar Jain spoke about the significant progress made by the university for its growth by hiring and nurturing talent, deployment of resources and building culture and governance. He listed the university’s initiatives for holistic development of students, empowering faculty members, infrastructure development and promoting excellence in education and research. The vice-chancellor mentioned the progress made by the university in strengthening its alumni engagement and informed that it now had a database of nearly 62,000 alumni.
A total of 34 medals were conferred on 30 students during the convocation ceremony that took place at Swatantrata Bhawan. A total of 14,072 degrees were awarded. Out of them, 867 were Ph.D., 21 M.Phil., 5,074 postgraduate and 8,110 undergraduate degrees.
Arts wing to confer degrees today
BHU’s Faculty of Arts, also called the “mother faculty” of BHU, will be conferring over 4,300 degrees upon its graduating students on Sunday. In total 4,358 students from 22 departments will be the receiving degrees. These include 267 Ph.D, 1415 PG and 2676 UG students.
