- Jeff Bezos made a surprise appearance Monday at a Washington, DC high school to visit an Amazon-funded computer science class.
- Video from the event shows one student not recognizing the Amazon CEO - and who was then visibly unimpressed after learning his identity.
- The teacher told the Washingtonian she estimated "only about three" of her students recognized Bezos when he walked into the classroom.
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Jeff Bezos may be the richest person in the world, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone in the world knows who he is.
Bezos made a surprise appearance Monday in a computer science class at a high school in Washington, D.C. The class is offered thanks to Amazon's Future Engineer program, which funds thousands of computer science course around the country.
According to the Washingtonian, the class was hosting a public event Monday to showcase what students have been able to do with Amazon's help. A few Amazon programmers were there to mentor students, and a gaggle of press was there taking photos of the event. Then walked in Bezos himself, whose entrance was captured in a video from NBC Washington's Caroline Tucker.
Tucker's video is noteworthy not because of Bezos, but because of the high school students in the class he enters. One such student, in a black hoodie, can be seen the forefront of the video. As Bezos chats with the teacher, the student can be seen turing around in his seat to ask the person behind him - perhaps another student, or one of the reporters gathered in the room - about the man in front of the room. The student is clearly seen saying, twice, "Who's Jeff Bezos?"
When the person tells the student that Bezos is the CEO of Amazon, the student reacts in a way that suggests he's less than impressed. He purses his lips, turns back toward the front of the room, and lifts his hands in a gesture akin to: "Big deal, so what?"
The class' teacher, Ramona Hutchins, told the Washingtonian that she estimated "only about three" of the students in her class actually recognized Bezos.
The CEOs of tech companies don't have the same instant recognition of celebrities and other public figures. A 2016 survey from the Morning Consult asked people about their opinions on various tech CEOs. About half of the respondents said they hadn't heard of Bezos, or had no opinion about him. That percentage put him behind only Faceboook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook, but above Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
This morning @amazon is at Dunbar High School in DC to announce a milestone in its Future Engineer Program. They had a surprise guest....Jeff Bezos. @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/dmOvmeJ4Fv
- Caroline Tucker (@CTuckerNews) October 21, 2019