Woodland Poly

“The thing that separates the real successful from the not so successful is they continue learning everyday, to seek different information from all over the world, and to learn from their mistakes. The world is changing every day,” said Udi Manber, vice president of engineering for Google, to Woodland Poly students at an assembly in December 2011.

Woodland Polytechnic Academy is a tuition-free public charter school that opened in fall 2011, serving grades 9,10 and 11 in the 2011-12 school year.

Offering inspiration that all things are possible to the freshmen, sophomore, and junior classes at Woodland’s first charter high school, Manber described Google’s beginning — starting in a garage in 1998 — to becoming a $30 billion company, with offices all over the world, and 30,000 employees.

“We run hundreds of millions of searches a day. The complexity of doing that is beyond belief and mind-boggling. Most of the $30 billion in revenues come 50 cents at a time,” marveled Manber.

Receiving his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Washington, Manber’s accomplishments are impressive: CEO of A9.com, Senior Vice President at Amazon, Yahoo’s Chief Scientist, Professor at the University of Arizona, recipient of the Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1985, and co-developer of numerous search engines. To a question asked by a Woodland Poly student, Manber responded, “Yes, most of the jobs at Google require a college degree, for example in engineering, computer science, business, and psychology.”

“In keeping with our mission to provide an exceptional educational experience, the founders, staff and Board members of Woodland Poly were pleased to be able to introduce this extraordinary leader, Udi Manber,” shared Executive Director Steve Marks, Jr.

“The richest person in the world, 15 years ago, didn’t have access to the information that Woodland Poly students have today,” declared Manber.