The Stanford Challenge campaign was so successful that its numbers, starting with $6.23 billion raised, can easily win the lion's share of attention. More than 166,000 alumni, students, parents, corporations, foundations and others made gifts; to cite just one category, more than $250 million goes to need-based undergraduate scholarships.
But the heart of the five-year campaign, which concluded December 31, was everything it enables throughout the University. That story pulses with accounts, such as the three that follow, of intellectual and community achievements that reflect the full Stanford experience.
WORKING TOGETHER
BRIGHT IDEAS: Gunaydin (above) and Mattis use blue lasers to activate a light-sensitive protein in rodents' brain cells. (Photos: Samantha Berg)Doctoral students Joanna Mattis and Lisa Gunaydin are able to work on cutting-edge research thanks to their graduate fellowships in the Bio-X program. But perhaps just as important, they've been able to develop their talents with secure funding in an environment where collaboration is part of the formula for success.
Mattis and Gunaydin work in the lab of Professor Karl Deisseroth, PhD '98, MD '00. It is a spawning place for advances in optogenetics, an evolving field that uses light to control brain cells ("New Light on the Brain," November/December 2010). Mattis is pursuing a dual medical and graduate degree in the Medical Scientist Training Program. Gunaydin is in her final year of doctoral work in neuroscience. Their Bio-X fellowships are funded by a Stanford Challenge donor, the William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation of San Francisco.
Among their shared achievements is a recent paper, published in Nature Methods, that synthesizes optogenetics work done with bioengineering techniques. "We looked at tools that had been developed within our lab and also within other labs around the world, and sort of systematically compared them under one set of standardized conditions," Mattis explains. "And in doing so, we defined what that set of standardized conditions should be going forward to really set a standard for the field."
Also noteworthy: They were two of 12 authors, all from their lab. Mattis was the first of three co-first authors. "That's what I love about this lab," says Gunaydin. "It's so collaborative. Every paper that comes out of this lab has at least two co-first authors. . . . Every single paper is like that, and it's incredibly collegial. I can't think of a single experiment that is done completely in isolation, just by one person."
PASSING IT ON
FAMILY FIRST: De La Garza's scholarship opened unexpected doors (Photo: Steve Bean).Before Sarah De La Garza understood that Stanford was going to be affordable, she was giving strong consideration to a pre-pharmacy program at a university in her home state of Texas. "Because I'm from a low-income background, I was viewing college as, OK, I'm going to get trained in something, so I can get a good job and support my family."
De La Garza is a Stanford senior now. She majored in comparative studies in race and ethnicity, writing an honor's thesis "looking at the intersections of feminism and religion in the experiences of Chicana activists." She would like to spend a few years as a teacher or college counselor, and then pursue a doctorate in education. When she talks about the advantages of a liberal arts education, she leans forward in her chair like someone getting ready to jump up and do the wave.
"Not only is Stanford such a great institution," she says, "but if it weren't for the financial aid, I wouldn't have felt as free to study what I want. It's something that I feel like I gained here that I couldn't have gained anywhere else, and that's something that I always emphasize to the students I talk to, to really look at college as a chance to study what you want, because it's the critical thinking that you're going to walk away with. And you should see whatever you study as something that you like, not necessarily a trade."
Talking to new and prospective students is something De La Garza has embraced through her latest campus job as a diversity recruitment intern in the office of undergraduate admission. For the last three years, she has also been part of the leadership team for FLIP (first-generation, low-income partnership), a group that brings together students who are the first in their families to attend college or who come from economically difficult backgrounds.
Raised by a single mom, De La Garza is the first college student in her family. Two preteen brothers can expect to hear plenty about the bliss of a liberal arts education.
THE PLAY'S THE THING
SUMMER STOCK: Martin gained access to leading Shakespearean actors. (Photo: Brett Blair)For Brendon Martin, last summer's internship with the Public Theater in New York City was largely an immersion in multi-front efforts to make Shakespeare as vital as possible in the 21st century. A drama major, Martin, '13, was part of a program developed by the Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts, supported by the Stanford Challenge. Just being in proximity to leading figures in the contemporary world of Shakespeare was "joy" for him.
But he also got entrée to some prized activities, such as the Shakespeare Lab, a training program for a relatively small group of mid-career actors. "I got to sit in on those classes and learn what it really means to do Shakespeare, to reach people," says Martin.
Martin, whose career interest is in directing and arts administration, felt his thinking stretch during every aspect of the process. Ideas about language, performance and storylines flew at him in workshops that were as detailed, he says, as examining every word of dialogue in order to best convey each one.
Amid the privileged peeks into the theater's artistic work, he handled a fair share of mundane tasks. But what he came back to Stanford with was a heightened sense that Shakespeare is not merely relevant, but "universal" and "timeless."
