The 2024 Commencement was perhaps destined to focus on change. Many of the 5,416 people receiving their degrees on June 16 had their education disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the 1,838 members of the undergraduate Class of 2024, most of whom missed out on an in-person high school graduation and spent their frosh year remote, attending Senior Dinner on the Quad and donning regalia meant putting a cap on the pandemic era at Stanford. Meanwhile, 105-year-old Virginia Hislop, ’40, MA ’24 (top left), closed the book on a master’s degree in education that was interrupted by World War II.
The academic year was marked by campus tumult over the Israel-Hamas war. As President Richard Saller spoke, roughly 250 graduates participated in a silent walkout to attend an alternative ceremony in support of Palestinians. “While at Stanford,” Saller said as they departed, “you’ve gained the tools and analytical skills to help you understand the world, analyze its shortcomings, and work on solutions that will make things better. I urge you to continue to be open to other points of view. Don’t let your convictions shut out your ability to listen and learn. I want to urge you to embrace your future with gratitude and with optimism while acknowledging the suffering of others.”
Photos clockwise from top: Victor Madrigal, ’94; H. Taghap; Andrew Brodhead/Stanford University
Commencement speaker Melinda French Gates shared a teaching by spiritual leader Ram Dass (formerly known as Richard Alpert, PhD ’57): As two waves approach the shore, the bigger one sees only disaster ahead, while the smaller wave reassures the big wave that all will be well, because “you’re not a wave. You’re water.” The story, French Gates said, “captures what it’s like to experience enormous transition without losing the core of who you are.” She encouraged graduates to seek out their small waves in life—the people who can “help you imagine yourself as the person you want to become.”
Summer Batte, ’99, is the editor of Stanfordmag.org. Email her at summerm@stanford.edu.
