Famous Montessori Alumni

Sergey Brin & Larry Page

The world's largest Internet company, Google.com, was founded by two Montessori Alumni, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They became friends while studying in Stanford and started Google.com in a rented garage space!

Sergey moved to america at age 6 from Russia. While surviving in Maryland, he completed grade school at Paint Branch Montessori School and was later home schooled before attending the University of Maryland.

Brin double majored in computer science and mathematics, graduating with honors. He continued to work on his doctorate at Stanford University. Here he focused on data mining systems but together with his new friend Larry Page, Brin ventured into new territory, publishing academic articles and creating what would become a global force- Google.

Larry Page grew up in Michigan and attended the Okemos Montessori School. Similar to Brin, Page stayed near his family for his bachelor's degree and attended the University of Michigan where he graduated with a degree in computer engineering with honors.

He moved to Stanford to complete a MS is computer science before pursuing a PhD. He chose to pursue a doctorate with a focus on 'exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web'. It had been during this time period he met Sergey Brin.

Brin and Page made a decision to suspend their studies at Stanford to move forward with implementing what they projected to function as most superior google search. Soliciting money from friends, family and just about anyone else they could find, they began to build the server and program for an internet site based on internet search engine and online advertising technology.

Officially launched in 1998, Google set out "to arrange the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google continues to expand today with Buzz, Talk, AdWords, the Droid, Gmail therefore much more. For these two Montessori Alum there is no limit to fulfilling their mission.

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales, the web Entrepreneur that started Wikipedia is our fourth famous Montessori Alumni.

Wales credits the one-room Montessori schoolhouse he visited for inspiring his intellectual curiosity.

With mixed age education he was able to learn from children of different ages and was presented with the freedom to pursue their own natural learning process- both major principles of the Montessori Method.

After completing Kindergarten through eighth grade in his grandmother's House of Learning, he continued his education at the Randolph School before continuing to Auburn University for his bachelor's in finance.

Attending University of Alabama and lastly focusing on his doctorate in finance at Indiana University, Wales taught before learning to be a futures and options trader in Chicago. "By speculating on interest-rate and foreign-currency fluctuations" Wales became a wealthy man.

But this was insufficient for him. Wales chose to pursue his passion of fabricating an online encyclopedia. Working with Larry Sanger, the two started Nupedia and later changed the name to Wikipedia.

The concept of Wikipedia was to generate an open edited encyclopedia where anyone can post and edit material. Sanger stated "the idea of open source, collaborative encyclopedia, available to contribution by ordinary people, was entirely Jimmy's, not mine, and the funding was entirely by Bomis... the specific development of the encyclopedia was the task he gave me to focus on."

This has been the cause of much debate of whether Wikipedia was a 'co-found' by the two. Regardless of the controversy concerning the company's founding, they started the venture with little expectations. But shortly thereafter, they both realized they had come to create the world's largest encyclopedia successfully using the "self-regulating community that has proven conducive to the growth of the project." Wikipedia is growing every minute because of Wales and his controversial 'co-founder' Sanger.

P Diddy

Sean John Combs, also called P. Diddy or formally known as Puff Daddy, was born in 1969. He has since grown to become one on hip hops most famous stars.

As a world renowned record producer and rapper P. Diddy is our fourth famous Montessori Alumni. After being brought up to exploit his creativity and strengths in his Harlam Montessori school, Combs continued to review at Howard University in Washington D.C.

He landed an internship at Uptown Records and discovered that he would have to choose between finishing his education or following his dreams and instincts by moving to New York.

In Combs's case, his choice to pursue his career over his education paid. Quickly rising through the ranks Combs became a high executive at Uptown Records. In 1993 he founded Bad Boy Records which signed acts that rapidly became superstars including Notorious B.I.G., Craig Mack, Faith Evans, Usher, 112, Boyz II Men, SVW, Mariah Carey, Lil Kim, TLC, to name a few.

It had been not until 1997 that Combs released his first album as a rapper beneath the name of Puff Daddy. His album soared to the most notable of the Billboards and a fresh Sean Combs was born.

His success as a record producer and a rapper was not enough for this entrepreneurial Montessori Alumni. In 1998, Combs started his men's clothing line, Sean John, which received the Council of Fashion Designers of America's Award for Menswear Designer of the Year in 2004 (and was nominated in 2000).

Since the turn of the millennium Combs has made various other rather large changes in his career. First and foremost he chose to change his name from Puff Daddy to P. Diddy. He has also dabbling in acting, opened the restaurant chain Justin's, developed the premium vodka mark Ciroc and became the producer of MTV's Making the Band.

Today P. Diddy is thinking to open a small business school in New York! Can't nobody hold down this famous Montessori Alumni.

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