2012 Commencement weekend at Stanford
More than 25,000 family members and friends gathered for Stanford's 121st Commencement weekend. The keynote of Sunday's Commencement ceremony was an address by Stanford alumnus Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J. He spoke to the graduates who entered Stanford Stadium with the traditional Wacky Walk. Highlights on Saturday included the Baccalaureate address by Sister Joan Chittister, founder and director of Benetvision and co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women; and the Class Day Lecture by Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, as well as graduation ceremonies at the Law School, School of Medicine and Graduate School of Business. Below are highlights of some of the events.
Commencement weekend in pictures
Stanford University photographer Linda A. Cicero prepared a slideshow capturing highlights of Commencement weekend celebrations, including Baccalaureate, Class Day, the Wacky Walk and Sunday's graduation ceremony featuring Cory Booker.
Mayor Cory Booker
Cory Booker tells Stanford grads to be courageous, work together
Inspired by his father and grandfather, Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker told Stanford graduates to join a "conspiracy of love" that will lift them in times of need and challenge them to go beyond what they think is possible. "I say to you on this graduation," Booker said, "to join the conspiracy. To be a class of people that rejects cynicism. … Be lovers. Join the conspiracy and love with all of your heart and all of your courage."
Sister Joan Chittister
Baccalaureate: 'Rebel, rebel, rebel - for all our sakes, rebel!' Sister Joan Chittister tells Class of 2012
Answers are easy to come by – just Google them, Sister Joan Chittister told the Class of 2012 at the Baccalaureate ceremony. "No, what the world really needs from you now is the courage to ask the right questions without apology, without fear and without close-mindedness."
Social scientist Larry Diamond
Class Day Lecture: Democracy is a 'universal value,' Larry Diamond says
Drawing on Stanford's motto, "The wind of freedom blows," social scientist Larry Diamond traces the rise of democracy since the 1970s, noting, "People around the world want to be recognized as having equal worth and basic rights. In a world of broad access to FM radios, satellite television and mobile phones, even the poor come to know that only a free society can secure those rights."
Law Professor Robert Daines
Law School grads are urged to strike a balance between career, personal life
"I leave it to you to decide whether someone can be truly happy if they reform prisons and right a string of wrong precedent, but make a mess of their relationships with friends and family; if they argue brilliantly and frequently in court, but too often with their loved ones; if politicians and reporters return their calls, but their children won't talk to them," Robert Daines, the Pritzker Professor of Law and Business, told the graduates at the Law School ceremony on Saturday.
José Sandoval (second left) in the procession of students at Saturday's ceremony.
Medical School Commencement celebrates one student's return and new roads ahead
On the stage at the June 16 School of Medicine commencement, amid the young fresh-faced graduates with promising careers lying before them, was a bespectacled, white-haired gentleman, Dr. José Sandoval, who has been practicing family medicine for the last 30 years. Sandoval, who graduated from Stanford's medical school in 1977, fulfilled a long-held dream to don a gown and mortarboard and walk in the procession of students.
Philanthropist John Morgridge
Speaker John Morgridge shares his 'Rules for the Long Road' during the GSB's diploma ceremony
"The choices you will make given your youth, your energy, your knowledge, and your experience will change your community, your country, and your world," John Morgridge told a group of 473 degree candidates during the Stanford Graduate School of Business diploma ceremony on June 16 at Frost Amphitheater. The afternoon ceremony honored 384 students who received MBA degrees, 19 PhDs, 67 who earned the Sloan Master of Science degree, and 3 Master of Arts in Business Research degrees.
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