New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg travelled to California to deliver Stanford University's 2013 commencement speech this weekend, touching on immigration reform, entrepreneurship, and the American Dream.
"Let me start by offering my congratulations... And a happy Father's Day to all the dads who are bursting with pride right now - and hoping that you won't be moving back into your old bedroom," Bloomberg's speech opened.
As the mayor continued he spoke about New York's growing tech industry - today referred to as Silicon Alley - an emerging bubble in the city meant to rival Palo Alto's Silicon Valley, the school's neighboring tech epicenter.
"I believe that more and more Stanford graduates will find themselves moving to Silicon Alley, not only because we're the hottest new tech scene in the country," the mayor said. "Stanford graduates thrive in New York City - because bother places thrive on innovation and entrepreneurialism.
"If companies founded by Stanford alumni were to form an independent nation, it would be the 10th largest economy in the world," he said.
At one point, Bloomberg touched on the issue of immigration, stating that Washington's current approach pushes U.S.-educated immigrants out of the country to work in other nations.
"We invite foreign students to study here, we subsidize the universities they attend with research funding and other aid, and then after those students have mastered the material, we tell them to go somewhere else and work for one of our competitors," he said. "It's the most backwards economic policy you could possibly come up with."
Bloomberg encouraged graduates to take their top-notch education and start their journeys by constantly reminding themselves of their dreams.
"As you leave this campus behind, you leave with the wind of freedom at your back and a world of possibility at your feet," he said. "That, graduates, is the essence of the American Dream. To feel that wind of freedom - to know that world of possibility... It's the dream that millions of Americans have fought and died to protect. And it's the dream that billions of people around the world carry in their hearts."
Mounting American history as a series of struggles that are ever prominent today, making reference to a visit to the school by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr during the civil rights movement, Bloomberg asked students to pick up the torch and continue to fight.
"When Doctor King visited in 1964, he told students here: 'Human progress never merely rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. There is always a right time to do right and that time is now,'" Bloomberg said. "That time is now... Tomorrow, with the wind of freedom on your back, go out and pursue your American Dream and help make it a reality for others."
According to the Stanford Daily, the university granted 1,701 bachelor's degrees, 2,325 master's degrees and 1,055 doctoral degrees.
