We are Stanford: A Festival for Reflection and Renewal kicks off

With a warm sun overhead, Cerise Burns smiled as she painted orange, purple and pink flowers within the word “community” written across a large canvas banner in White Plaza on Thursday.

Dale Burns, research scientist in the Department of Geological Sciences, and Cerise Burns, program coordinator in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering, paint at the community art table in White Plaza. (Image credit: Kurt Hickman)

Burns, a program coordinator in the Department Energy Resources Engineering, said while COVID-19 and coming back to campus have been difficult, “it’s nice there’s community support and it involves different groups of the university as a whole.”

The White Plaza event was one of the opening ceremonies for We are Stanford: A Festival for Reflection and Renewal, which continues with daily activities through Oct. 10.

The Office for Religious and Spiritual Life convened a wide range of campus partners to organize the festival, which is meant to help process all that the community has been through, individually and collectively, since the pandemic began and prepare for a renewed expression of campus life.

During the festival, about two dozen partners are providing programs with intersecting themes of grief, loss, remembrance, community, gratitude, hope and joy at various sites across campus.

The Rev. Dr. Tiffany Steinwert, dean for religious and spiritual life, said it can feel overwhelming to navigate both the joy and gratitude of being on campus with others but also the grief and loss of the pandemic. The festival is meant to help people process all these emotions.

“To integrate and move forward, we need space for that. The settling of this experience will take a long time,” she said. “We can only do this together, and this is why we’re here.”

Zen Master Rebecca Nie, a chaplain affiliate in the Office for Religious and Spiritual life, held a special Buddhist ceremony as part of the Thursday event and said the festival is an opportunity to acknowledge what has happened while reminding people that they don’t need to suffer alone.

Zen Master Rebecca Nie, chaplain affiliate with the Office for Religious and Spiritual Life, offered words for healing with the Rev. Dr. Coleen Hallagan Preuniger, associate dean for religious and spiritual life and director of student engagement. (Image credit: Kurt Hickman)

“Let’s heal together and take what is life-giving, even through a very difficult experience, and bring it forward to build a future that is more accepting, healing and wholesome than what it was in our past,” she said.

Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, a chaplain affiliate and executive director of Hillel at Stanford, joined student body president Christian Giadolor in welcoming the campus community to the festival. She asked others to reflect on what has changed for them and how they want to return from this experience.

The fall festival – offered in partnership with the Office of the Vice President of the Arts, the School of Medicine, Recreation and Wellness, and others – offers a diverse range of ritual, artistic, commemorative and celebratory programs.

Festival events include opportunities such as film screenings, music performances, yoga, dance, meditations, writing programs and more.

Once the festival ends, the campus community is also invited to ongoing opportunities for reflection such as the BeWell Silver Linings Walls in the main campus and Redwood City recreation centers, where visitors can add a note about a silver lining of the past 18 months. There are also two COVID-19 memorial soundwalks available, with one on the main campus and another at the Redwood City campus.

Visit the We are Stanford: A Festival for Reflection and Renewal festival page for a full listing of events.