Convocation remarks by Stanford President Jonathan Levin

First-years, transfer students, and families: Welcome to Stanford!

We’ve been eagerly anticipating your arrival and it was a joy to see you moving in this morning. We’re so glad you’re here.

Like you, I am beginning a new chapter. Although I’ve spent many years on the Stanford faculty – teaching in the economics department, and then as the dean of Stanford’s business school, I am just starting as Stanford’s president.

Like you, I am setting off on a journey of learning and discovery. Over the years, I have come to love Stanford and all that it represents. I’m energized by the opportunities before us, and by our future – the future that you represent.

I couldn’t be more excited to welcome you as my first class.

Watching you arrive brought me back to my own first days as an undergraduate at Stanford, in September of 1990. I grew up on the East Coast, so moving across the country to California was filled with both anticipation and uncertainty.

Now, I’d like to say that 34 years ago, I sat in one of your seats at Convocation and Stanford’s president said something that shaped my time at Stanford, that affected the course of my life, something that I remember decades later.

But actually, I can’t remember anything about Convocation. And assuming I attended, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t paying attention to the president. Because my first week at Stanford, what I was thinking was: Who are all these people? Will any of them become my friends?

I suspect the same may be true for some of you, which is entirely appropriate.

So, now that we’ve established that 34 years from now, you won’t remember this talk, and you may not even remember if you were here, I have a few things I’d like to share.

College is about questions

I’ll start with a story, which is really about my hopes for you at Stanford.

Some years ago, I attended a wonderful lecture for a freshman humanities class. The speaker was the philosopher Jonathan Lear, and the topic was Socrates.

Socrates, as Lear explained, did philosophy by talking to everyday people. The way he did that was to ask questions, to engage in Socratic dialogue.

All sorts of people came to Socrates. Typically, they would arrive with a conviction – for instance, a theory of justice or of piety. Socrates would ask probing questions, and their conviction would weaken. Socrates would ask more questions. They would become even less certain. Eventually, reduced to a state of confusion, they would rush off.

But Socrates stood still. Because unlike the people around him, he was comfortable not knowing. He was comfortable asking questions and not having answers.

That lecture came back to me, thinking about why you are here today.

People will tell you that college is about acquiring knowledge. Of course, there’s a good deal of truth to that. You will learn many theories and facts and skills here at Stanford.

However, at its core, college is about asking questions. It is about learning to appreciate how much you don’t know – that there are always new ways to approach a topic, to reframe your thinking, or to explore more deeply.

Now, Jonathan Lear’s lecture went on to talk about another very relevant point. Lear observed that Socrates was interested in the question of how students, like you, can develop in ways that will allow you to flourish as individuals and in society, and what sort of lives you might aspire to lead.

At the end of the lecture, there were questions from the audience. A student stood up and said, “Professor Lear … how do I live a good life?” I remember the moment vividly: first, because it was a hard question, and second, because for an instant, there was an extraordinary transference, as if we were in the room not with Professor Lear but with Socrates.

Of course, the question was also the point of the lecture. Although you will be plenty busy in the coming weeks making friends, figuring out your classes and activities, and trying to remember where FloMo and Wilbur and Roble are located, part of what we eventually want you to do at Stanford is to engage with big questions: How do I prepare to live a good life? What does it mean to be a citizen in society or in a democracy?

These questions are asked in every culture, and at every time. Indeed, you will be asked to tackle them as part of the COLLEGE curriculum this year.

Wrestling with them is part of what we mean when we say that Stanford will offer you not just skills and a degree but a true liberal education.

So my hope for you at Stanford is that you will learn new subjects and skills, whether it’s international relations or creative writing or molecular biology. That you will meet people who become lifelong friends. That you fall in love with this beautiful campus. That you find a career path. And most of all, that you leave with many questions, and a greater comfort in not knowing all the answers.

A few pieces of advice

Now, I’ve shared my aspirations for you, and I’d like to share three pieces of advice.

Be curious, not judgmental

First, take a moment to look at the 1,700 students gathered around you. Multiply that by four. Add the coterms, the graduate students, the faculty. At Stanford, you will be surrounded by people from every part of the world, from all different backgrounds, with a vast array of interests and aspirations.

One of our collective challenges is to create an environment where each of us, with so many different passions and views, can thrive. If you’ve followed college campuses for the last year, you’ll know it’s not a given.

I’m fond of the television coach Ted Lasso, whose maxim was: “Be curious, not judgmental.” Stanford is a place to be curious, not judgmental: about each other, about ideas, about different perspectives. That means keeping an open mind, getting into conversations, being inquisitive about the people around you.

I hope if you remember one thing from this talk, you’ll remember that, because it is really at the heart of having a strong community at Stanford.

Explore, with intention

Second, here at Stanford, you can pick virtually any field of knowledge, and there will be someone on this campus who is at its frontier.

You can take classes on the ecology of kelp forests, Greek mythology, the social and economic impact of AI, and hundreds of other topics.

You can join more than 650 student clubs, and that’s not even counting the sports teams. When I think back to my own freshman dorm, there were students who joined singing groups, ran for student government, built solar cars, and competed for NCAA championships. A group of my dorm mates broke the world record for leap-frogging, by spending two weeks lapping Wilbur Field during spring quarter.

One of my closest friends joined precisely zero organized activities. Instead, he memorized the names of all 1,700 people in our class. That also worked out just fine – maybe even better than for the leap-froggers.

So one of the hardest decisions you will face at Stanford is figuring out what to do and how to spend your time.

Over many years here, what I have seen is that the students who are most successful strike a balance. They are intentional in setting goals and making plans – for the quarter or the year – but they also leave themselves open to serendipity. They put themselves out there to try new things or take a risk in meeting new people.

I hope you will try to find that balance during your time here.

Gratitude

My third and final piece of advice is more personal.

Stanford will not be a perfect experience. Each of you will have disappointments and frustrations and setbacks. Some of you have overcome significant challenges to sit here today, and in the next few years, all of us will encounter difficulties.

Yet we are also in a fortunate position. As a Stanford student, many doors are open. You can pursue undergraduate research, take courses taught by Nobel laureates, study in Florence or Cape Town or Hong Kong. You will have freedoms here that compared to many parts of the world are extraordinary.