YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Explains How Harvard's Popular Computer Science Class Changed Her Life

Among the long list of tech luminaries who have passed through Harvard's introductory computer science course CS50 is YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who recently recorded a video for the college expressing her affection for the class she says "changed how I think about everything."

CS50 is Harvard's most popular undergraduate course, with more than 800 students enrolled this semester. Harvard professor Harry Lewis, the director of undergraduate studies for the computer science department, told Business Insider that students who took the course were "empowered" - "In one semester, they've learned something they can do something with, they can apply it to their own field of study," he said.

Wojcicki - a history and literature major at Harvard - took CS50 her senior year, realizing the summer before, she says, that "maybe I wanted to learn something about computers." After she took the class, Wojcicki took a job out in Silicon Valley, where she has stayed since graduating in 1990.

"CS50 changed my life. I continue to learn and build, it gave me a great foundation ... I think it's so wonderful that you all are taking it, because that's how the world is going to change," Wojcicki tells students in the video.

Watch Susan Wojcicki's full message to CS50 students below: