--- title: Sheryl Sandberg: Read Her Virginia Tech Commencement Speech description: The Facebook chief operating officer highlighted the importance of hope and resilience as she addressed a crowd of graduating Hokies canonical: https://time.com/4777077/sheryl-sandberg-virginia-tech-graduation-speech-facebook/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T15:42:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:01:42.000Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Sheryl Sandberg to Virginia Tech Graduates: 'Build Resilient Communities' og:description: Sandberg told the Hokies to "Be there for your friends and family" og:url: https://time.com/4777077/sheryl-sandberg-virginia-tech-graduation-speech-facebook/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc835e68cf885751/6988c400656a3f4806bcfad0/sheryl-sandberg-3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sheryl Sandberg Option B og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sheryl Sandberg to Virginia Tech Graduates: 'Build Resilient Communities' twitter:description: Sandberg told the Hokies to "Be there for your friends and family" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc835e68cf885751/6988c400656a3f4806bcfad0/sheryl-sandberg-3.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sheryl Sandberg to Virginia Tech Graduates: 'Build Resilient Communities' by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:01 PM CUTPublished: May 12, 2017 3:42 PM CUT  Clare Major—TIME by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:01 PM CUTPublished: May 12, 2017 3:42 PM CUT [Sheryl Sandberg](http://time.com/sheryl-sandberg-option-b/ "undefined") addressed Virginia Tech’s graduating class of 2017 on Friday, telling the Hokies she felt right at home at a place with “Tech” in its title. In her speech, the Facebook chief operating officer and _Lean In_ author stressed the importance of hope, as well as [resilience](http://time.com/4751235/sheryl-sandberg-grief-dave-golberg-option-b/ "undefined"), a major theme in her new book, [_Option B_](http://time.com/4737347/sheryl-sandberg-option-b-excerpt/ "undefined"). “Build resilient communities,” she said. “Be there for your friends and family. And I mean in person – not just in a message with a heart emoji.” Below find a full transcript of her remarks as delivered: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4777077/sheryl-sandberg-virginia-tech-graduation-speech-facebook/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4777077/sheryl-sandberg-virginia-tech-graduation-speech-facebook/"},"headline":"Sheryl Sandberg to Virginia Tech Graduates: 'Build Resilient Communities'","datePublished":"2017-05-12T15:42:11.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:01:42.000Z","description":"Sandberg told the Hokies to \"Be there for your friends and family\"","url":"https://time.com/4777077/sheryl-sandberg-virginia-tech-graduation-speech-facebook/","keywords":["Education","Sheryl Sandberg","advice","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc835e68cf885751/6988c400656a3f4806bcfad0/sheryl-sandberg-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc835e68cf885751/6988c400656a3f4806bcfad0/sheryl-sandberg-3.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sheryl Sandberg Option B","caption":"","creditText":"Clare Major—TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4777077/sheryl-sandberg-virginia-tech-graduation-speech-facebook/","name":"Sheryl Sandberg to Virginia Tech Graduates: 'Build Resilient Communities'"}}]}] ```