Stanford’s Three Books program, a distinctive feature of a Stanford undergraduate education, has announced two of its selections for the 2024-2025 academic year, both memoirs.
For the Fall quarter COLLEGE course, Why College? Your Education and the Good Life, students are reading Andre Agassi’s autobiography Open. For the winter COLLEGE course Citizenship in the 21st Century, students will read On Juneteenth, by historian Annette Gordon-Reed. The spring reading assignment, to be paired with the Global Perspectives COLLEGE courses, has yet to be selected.
Agassi’s Open is about his career as one of the world’s top tennis players. In the book, he recounts his ascent to the pinnacle of his sport, his ambivalence toward his success, and his struggle to find fulfillment outside of tennis. It addresses the challenges of pursuing excellence, which is relevant to any field, said Dan Edelstein, the William H. Bonsall Professor of French in the School of Humanities and Sciences.
“Being a really successful person demands a whole set of mental skills that I think Agassi, in this memoir, does a great job of showing,” said Edelstein, who is the Nehal and Jenny Fan Raj director of COLLEGE. “The incredible psychological challenge of being the best at something is, I think, something that our students will relate to.”
Engaging students
Three Books, which is made possible by the generosity of The Lamsam-Sagan Family Endowed Fund for Undergraduate Education, has become one of Stanford’s signature academic programs for new first-year and transfer students. It debuted in 2004 as part of New Student Orientation (NSO). Each summer, the university would send newly admitted students three books (and sometimes other media) to read. When they arrived on campus for NSO, the students would discuss the books at special events with the authors.
Last year, the program transitioned fully into the COLLEGE curriculum, with each of the three selections assigned to a fall, winter, and spring COLLEGE course. Edelstein said the switch has allowed the students to give each text its proper due.
“We’re really happy with this merger between Three Books and COLLEGE,” he said. “Rather than try to have a conversation with three different artists in the same hour, we can really dive in on a particular conversation and a particular text.”
“In terms of engagement, we’re seeing a lot more students talking about the books and coming to the events with the authors. So, we’re very pleased with how it’s going,” he added.
Agassi spoke with new students Tuesday at Memorial Auditorium about the book and lessons from his success.
On Juneteenth
Gordon-Reed is a historian and law professor. In On Juneteenth, she combines her personal memoir with the history of Texas to show how she’s found a place for herself in the story of that state. It addresses racial inequalities and the move toward civil rights and a more integrated society.
“It’s a very poignant way for students to both absorb the history of this painful episode of American history, and also to think about the long reverberations of this history up to this day,” Edelstein said.
Gordon-Reed will visit campus next quarter to speak with students about her book.
COLLEGE – which stands for Civic, Liberal, and Global Education – was launched in 2021 as a new first-year requirement for undergraduates focused on intellectual curiosity and civic responsibility. It was designed as a three-course sequence, with students currently choosing classes in two quarters. The requirement asks students to consider what they want out of a college education, explore ways it can make living worthwhile, and help develop skills to empower them to live in community.