Virtual Graduation 2020

This video and text come from a Scratch project that I created for the Scratch Virtual Graduation in June 2020.

I want to congratulate all of the Scratchers who are graduating this year, in 2020.

Our research group at MIT started working on Scratch in 2002, around the same time when many of you were born. So, in many ways, Scratch has grown up with you — and because of you!

All of us on the Scratch Team are incredibly grateful for all of the ways that you’ve contributed to Scratch over the years, with your creative projects, caring comments, and collaborative remixes.

You’re the ones who made Scratch what it is today.

I know that the past few months have been very difficult for many of you — confined to your homes, separated from your friends. And there are many reasons to be worried and upset about the state of the world. The pandemic, soaring unemployment, and a series of horrific murders have highlighted the inequities and systemic racism in our society

To deal with these challenging issues, the world needs more empathy, more collaboration, more creativity — so that people can understand one another, work together, and develop creative solutions.

That’s precisely what you’ve been learning to do in the Scratch community. I hope that you’ll take your Scratch skills and your Scratch values and apply them to all of the challenges that you face in the world.

Of course, I hope you’ll continue to participate in the Scratch online community. But more important, I hope you’ll spread the spirit of Scratch in whatever you do and wherever you go.

Thanks again for all of your contributions to Scratch, and congratulations on your graduation. I can’t wait to see how the Scratch Generation changes the world.

Keep on Scratching!