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On 20 May 2017, a self-described university drop-out named Gio Managadze wrote a Facebook post addressed to his parents, in which he explained, poetically and at great length, his decision to leave the University of Maryland despite not completing his degree, because he wanted to follow his dream of becoming a chief executive officer. The post was published on the networking site LinkedIn and has since gone viral. Managadze wrote, in part: The entire post, which is more than 3,000 words long, can be read here. We were able to confirm with the University of Maryland that Managadze was a student there; however, a spokeswoman told us that the university doesn't recognize valedictorians. Three speakers were scheduled to speak during the 21 May 2017 commencement ceremony and none of them were Managadze. Student speakers were Shuping Yang, a double major in theater and psychology, and Gregory Ridgway, a triple major in physics, mathematics and piano performance. Since posting the screed, Managadze has walked back some of the claims. In a 23 May 2017 Facebook post, he seemed to admit he had written inaccurate information, but said his original post was an experiment with marketing, writing: We reached out to ask Managadze over Facebook Messenger to ask if he has been successful in his quest to become a CEO. He answered that he is doing a lot of reading and working on a bunch of different ideas. We also asked why he said he was the valedictorian despite the fact the university system doesn't recognize any such title. He responded: On 31 May 2017 Managadze posted a picture of his garage in Silicon Valley, saying it was ready for some serious entrepreneuring.
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