Stanford University

The 18th annual Cardinal Walk 👣

📸: Nikolas Liepins / Ethography

Meet Jon Levin, a member of the Class of ’94 who double-majored in English and math, was the winner of the 2011 John Bates Clark Medal for the most significant American economist under 40, and served as dean of the Graduate School of Business for the past eight years. Today, he becomes the university’s 13th president.

Levin’s first leadership position at Stanford came during his time as an undergraduate where he served as president of the Stanford Kayak Club and taught fellow students how to kayak on an often-full Lake Lag. Many weekends, he and his friends would head for the hills, discovering new places to climb, ski, and kayak. “In my mind, the intellectual part of Stanford has always been tied to the place, to being outdoors, to the sense of exploration of being in California,” he says.

Following a master’s degree from Oxford and a PhD from MIT, Levin returned to campus. In 2002, as an assistant professor of economics, he joined Prof. William Robinson, ’89, PhD ’95, MD ’96—then a Stanford fellow in rheumatology—for an adventure on the Kern River involving 54 miles of kayaking, largely through Class V whitewater. “You never run a rapid unless you can see a very clear line. Your partner’s helping you portage, and then holding your boat when you get in and launch. It is the ultimate in trust,” says Robinson, citing his confidence in Levin as one of the many reasons he embarked on the adventure.

Robinson believes Levin’s even-keeled approach to looking for a line down the river—“collecting oneself, clearly thinking about the situation, not letting too much emotion get injected, and then helping make decisions such that the group traverses the rapid in a highly successful and safe way”—will serve him well in the high-pressure situations that a university presidency can present.

🗞️: https://stanford.io/3WseeMw
📸: ​​Toni Bird/STANFORD magazine

For more than a century, Stanford athletes have shined at the Olympics, breaking records and bringing home medals. 🏅

Over the years, 177 Stanford-affiliated athletes have captured 296 medals, including 150 gold, 79 silver, and 67 bronze. These accolades, along with a host of other athletic accomplishments, have placed Stanford among the most competitive universities in collegiate sports, including at the Games. A few historic Cardinal Olympians include:

- Sam Bellah, Stanford's first student-athlete to compete in the Games (1908)
- George Horine, Stanford’s first student-athlete to receive a medal
- Marjorie Gestring, the youngest person to ever win an Olympic gold medal at 13 years and 267 days old
- Jenny Thompson, who competed in four Olympics between 1992 and 2004 and won 12 medals
- Katie Ledecky, who won four gold medals and a silver in the 2016 Games and holds 10 total medals

What’s the secret to their success? Read the story: https://stanford.io/4dcYJ2d

The world’s first fully autonomous "tandem drift" 🏎️💨

Tandem drift is something of a cross between grand prix auto racing and pairs figure skating. Two cars skid and weave, appearing to “drift” while under each driver’s control. The lead car swerves through an elaborate series of maneuvers, and the chase car follows, trying to mirror every move while staying as close as possible – without touching. It’s a high-risk scenario, with points for elegance, speed, and synchrony – a supreme test of driver skill and control.

Now, imagine the same scenario without drivers, directed entirely by artificial intelligence. That’s exactly what researchers and created, with the goal of advancing the potential of AI to improve safety. Both cars, lead and chase, are driverless. Using only AI, the lead must plan and execute its line without human input. The chase car must follow suit, planning a trajectory that allows it to drop back when the lead vehicle changes direction and catch up quickly afterward.

“It’s a phenomenal sport. Professional drifters are the best at what they do. They’re operating at the absolute maximum of what the tire-road interface will allow. We wanted to see if we could match that skill – using steering, throttle, and brakes to master friction and gravity to achieve these graceful moves. You can’t pre-program that. It’s a real test of what AI can do.” -Chris Gerdes, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering

🗞️: https://stanford.io/3Ynup0d
📸: Toyota Research Institute

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University as painted by Alyssa Esteban 🎨🖌️

Michele Rasmussen has been appointed vice provost for student affairs at Stanford and will begin Sept. 10.

Rasmussen has served at University of Chicago since 2013 as the dean of students in the university, where she leads many departments, services, and programs that focus on campus life and support for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

“I am absolutely thrilled about joining the Stanford community. I am especially looking forward to getting to know my new colleagues across VPSA and building on the great foundation already in place to support students and help them attain their intellectual, professional, and personal goals.”

🗞️: https://stanford.io/4cOFv2a
📸: Jason Smith

Christian Sanchez, ’24, overcame many obstacles on his path to Stanford.

Sanchez grew up in San Diego, where his home life was unstable due to frequent moves, familial strife, financial challenges, and parents who were often away working multiple jobs. He was not studious and attended three high schools before a lack of direction and motivation caught up to him. 2014 was a particularly low point for him – including two drug overdoses and a traumatic car accident that nearly ended his life.

Sanchez briefly attended culinary school and even considered becoming a paralegal, but neither path panned out. With little money, no formal training or education, few job prospects, five children to support—one with autism—and living in public housing, Sanchez reached a breaking point.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m tired of living like this. This is terrible,’” he recalled.

Sanchez returned to school, completed his high school degree, and enrolled at a community college. In 2021, he began his undergraduate studies at Stanford, where life on the Farm was a whirlwind of coursework and raising four of his children on campus. Growing up at Stanford has changed his kids, who now regularly talk about school, the colleges they want to attend, and the career paths they’d like to pursue. “The little one wants to be a doctor,” he shared, beaming.

Sanchez graduated in June with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in education. Acknowledging the role that school has played in his life, he wants a career in higher education, hoping to become a community college professor and, one day, president of a community college system.

🗞️: https://stanford.io/4cVAwN0
📸: Andrew Brodhead

Due to high fire danger and elevated temperatures, the Stanford Dish will be closed until July 5, 2024. There is no access to the walking trails or open spaces. Gusty winds, low humidity, and high temperatures are expected in the area.

Please visit the Dish website for more information: dish.stanford.edu

School’s out, summer’s in. 😎☀️

📸: Andrew Brodhead

Fountain hopping to beat the heat. ☀️

📸: Andrew Brodhead

After serving one year in prison, Monica Hicks, ’24, committed to changing her life. It was the culmination of years of drug use and legal troubles that led her to deep personal introspection. She returned to school and eventually found a place among Stanford’s student body.

Academics came naturally to her and she was intellectually curious, but often got caught up with the wrong crowd. Her drug use took off after trying painkillers while getting her wisdom teeth removed. Hicks’ first of many arrests occurred at 21 and was for drug possession.

One day in prison, Hicks read an article about the technology industry being welcoming to anyone with computer science skills and talent. “It sounded like a really accepting and forgiving career path,” she said. “And that planted a seed in my mind.”

In January 2018, she returned to her mother’s home, determined to change her ways. She ended her drug use, attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and got a job. She also became inspired by her older brother’s academic pursuits. “Seeing what he’d accomplished, and how much he’d changed for the better, made me think that if he could do it, I could do it too.”

On Sunday, she graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. This summer, she will intern at Reddit’s New York office before returning to campus in the fall to begin her coterminal master’s studies in computer science.

“... if you follow even a one-degree nudge for long enough, it can change your entire trajectory.”

🗞️: https://stanford.io/3VqFYk0
📸: Andrew Brodhead

Celebrating our friends, family, and community. ❤️

📸: Andrew Brodhead

Yesterday, at the age of 105, Virginia “Ginger” Hislop graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Education with her master’s degree. When she started on campus in 1936, her plan was to get her bachelor’s of education, which she did in 1940, and obtain her master’s of education so she could teach, which she started directly after.

However, just after completing her coursework and before turning in her final thesis, her then-boyfriend George Hislop, ’41, a GSE student in Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), got called in to serve during World War II, prompting the pair to get married and Virginia Hislop to leave campus before graduating.

Now – 83 years after leaving campus and living in service to learning – Virginia Hislop returned to Stanford to finish what she started and receive her graduate degree. When she rose from her seat at the ceremony, donned in cap and gown, to walk across the stage and receive her master’s hood, the applause roared. She was handed her diploma and smiled for the cameras. Her grandkids waved and cheered.

“My goodness,” she said. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

🗞️: https://stanford.io/3VJt7e7
📸: Charles Russo

“Resist the idea that anything you’ve done here at Stanford has already locked you into one path or any one kind of life or career. Remember that once a wave learns to call itself by a different name – once it realizes it is not just a wave, but it is water – it becomes free to take on new forms. The same is true for you.”

Philanthropist Melinda French Gates shared personal stories and urged graduates to approach life’s transitions with “radical openheartedness” and a strong sense of community during her keynote speech at Stanford’s 133rd Commencement. 🎓

🗞: https://stanford.io/3VuEfdx

📸: Andrew Brodhead

You did it, Class of 2024! 🎉

📸: Andrew Brodhead

See you in the stands at Stanford Stadium soon! 🥳

📸: Andrew Brodhead

When Hannah Oo, ’24, and her peers started classes their freshman year in 2020, learning was remote. Now, four years later, with their whole lives ahead of them, Oo reflects on how she and her classmates face uncertainty again—but they know how to persevere through life’s unpredictability.

“There will be new things we do not know. We have been prepared though, to make change and to dare. To forge our homes in the world, to build community, and to be kind.”

More on the Baccalaureate ceremony: https://stanford.io/4eqX2Pk

📸: Andrew Brodhead

Varun Soni – an interfaith leader and the first Hindu to serve as the lead chaplain on a U.S. college campus – addressed the Class of 2024 and their guests at this morning’s Baccalaureate celebration, urging graduates to embrace joy amidst uncertain times.

“We can control how kind we are, how grateful we are, how much effort we exert, how much time we spend worrying or not worrying, and how we judge or don’t judge others. Most importantly, we can control how many times we say ‘I love you’ to the people we love … That’s really why we are here this morning. We are here to show love for our graduating students. And we are here to give joy to each other at a time when we need it most.”

📸: Andrew Brodhead

It’s almost time ... Welcome to ’s Commencement Weekend! 🎓

For a schedule of events and other information, visit: https://commencement.stanford.edu/

📸: Andrew Brodhead

Representation shaped Sylvia Colt-Lacayo’s path to Stanford. As a disabled Latina girl growing up in Oakland, she struggled to imagine going to college until she met Stanford student and wheelchair user Tilly Griffiths, ’22. Suddenly, a new story felt possible.

When she arrived on campus with her service dog, Nicola, Colt-Lacayo knew she was often the first visibly disabled student her professors and peers had interacted with. Her parents had taught her to advocate for herself, and while she doesn’t claim the label “activist,” she asks for what she needs.

From a young age, Colt-Lacayo was particularly fascinated with on-screen stories. She loved discussing films with her friends and binging series like “Veronica Mars.” When she started watching “Glee,” she was thrilled to see a character who used a wheelchair like her – until she learned the role was played by an actor who was not disabled.

“I remember feeling so heartbroken and betrayed, for no reason other than the fact that I felt seen for once as a 10-year-old watching Glee, and the power of that,” says Colt-Lacayo, who has a neuromuscular disorder called Bethlem myopathy.

Now, she’s graduating from Stanford with a degree in film and media studies and is heading to Hollywood with a passion for increasing disability representation and diversity in general.

Colt-Lacayo is proud to be graduating from college as a disabled person and hopes that sharing her story gives others the example she wished for when she was young. “Yes, there’s something that is in my DNA that makes my body different from other people’s. But really, what makes me disabled is that people treat me differently, and I do not have equal access to resources.”

Read Sylvia’s story: https://stanford.io/4b140rE

📸: Andrew Brodhead

Stanford will resume standardized test requirements for undergraduate admission, beginning with students applying in Fall 2025 for admission to the Class of 2030. Stanford will remain test-optional for students applying in Fall 2024 for admission to the Class of 2029.

The university will continue to review applicants in context, considering each piece of an application as part of an integrated and comprehensive whole. More specifically, the university evaluates academic achievement and potential within the context of each student’s background, educational pathway, work and family responsibilities, and other factors.

Read the full update: https://stanford.io/3ySc6Fy