Why Stanford?
Margaret Williams is a new graduate of the Ford Dorsey Master’s Program in International Policy (formerly IPS). The following is her commencement address to the Class of 2018.
Good afternoon and welcome.
I want to begin with some words of gratitude. First, an enormous thanks to Mike and Kathryn for your leadership of the program. With you at the helm I am confident that the experiences of future students will only become richer and richer. I want to thank Jonathan, Sara, Kristin, Gina, Meghan, and Kim for making sure the ship stayed afloat. All of our faculty mentors who have guided us through this journey. And of course, our friends and family who have supported us along the way. Specifically, I want to thank my mom, dad, and my brother George who was kind enough to be here today. None of this would have possible without your love and encouragement.
And finally, to my classmates — congratulations gang, we did it — you guys are awesome.
Over the past two years there is one question I have received more frequently than any other — why Stanford? This may seem surprising. After all Stanford is one of the best academic institutions in the world and offers opportunities you can find nowhere else, not to mention the weather isn’t half bad. None the less this question has bubbled up with regularity. It is a question I asked myself in the spring of 2016 when trying to pick a graduate program, it is a question I received from faculty here at Stanford, from my classmates, from prospective students, and from potential future employers.
There are a lot of reasons I choose Stanford that are unique to me, and the same can be said for each of my classmates. But one reason we all chose the IPS program is the people. Not just for our world-class faculty, but also for each other. Like any good millennial, as soon as I was accepted I began “researching” (also known as social media stalking) my future classmates. I wanted to know not only who would be most likely to help me survive the rigorous quantitative requirements (shout out to Gemma), but also who was going help me expand my horizons, challenge my assumptions — who were going to my friends? After all, professional development is an important aspect of graduate school, but so is having some fun. The answer was readily apparent … everyone. The group of 20 students who comprise the class of 2018 is one of the most remarkable collection of individuals that I have had the privilege of joining. We represent different countries, languages, backgrounds, and aspirations.
Yet, despite all these differences, our experiences at Stanford have bound us together. So today, I want to share a few memories from our two years here.
Our journey began with a week of “boot-camp” during which we reviewed basic math and economic fundamentals. I assumed that for my more quantitatively-savvy classmates this proved a useful refresher. However, I was having my first “oh shit” moment. I had not taken a math class since 12th grade, and the instructor wrote equations and proofs on the board with figures and symbols I had never seen before — it may as well have been an abstract painting course.
So, needless to say, I was worried about the coursework that lay ahead.
But in these initial moments of panic, I discovered something else — something that would help carry me through the next two years. I was not alone, and we were going to get through this together. And we did. You might “Recall” that throughout our first two quarters, as a cohort, we leveraged our respective expertise to successfully navigate exchange rates, trade balances, and inflation, as well as confidence intervals, goodness-of-fit tests, and the central limit theorem. Collectively, we dedicated nearly 3,000 hours to our Scott and Chonira assignments. And may we never have to draw the tree again.
The support we showed each other in the quant core extended into other coursework as well as our social lives. We edited papers for each other drawing on expertise from our cultural or professional backgrounds. For example, Jorge once translated a series of Spanish-language documents from the Mexican government for a research paper I wrote about nonproliferation.
And Ash, who took it upon himself this year (with much assistance from his amazing wife, Sam), to organize tailgates at each home football game as a way of bringing us all together in a relaxing environment.
Another step in our IPS journey which helped cement our bonds of friendship was the Study Trip. Not much will get a group together like trying to navigate the Moscow metro system at rush hour (or час пик). Impressively, we only lost one person throughout entire trip … and he was quickly recovered.
Throughout the week we probed seasoned journalists on the challenges of reporting in a constrained environment; we toured Skolkovo (the Russian Silicon Valley) and met with students to learn about their vision for the future of Russia and how the country is trying to foster innovation in the tech sector; some of us we watched ballet at the Bolshoi or tested our mettle at the infamous Sanduski sauna; we met with experts from the World Bank and Carnegie Endowment and other Russian think tanks to discuss how Russia is meeting contemporary social, political, and economic challenges.
The first year was filled with ample opportunities for the cohort to build a sense of cohesion. But maintaining those bonds was much more difficult in the second year as we sought out coursework and research opportunities that reflected our unique interests and aspirations.
One way we maintained connectivity, and another step in our collective IPS journey, was the practicum. Whether conducted independently or as a team, the practicum experience was one we shares and supported each other throughout. And although these capstone projects are only twenty weeks long, looking back we accomplished a great deal. For those of you unfamiliar with the practicum let me highlight a few examples:
Jamal, Emily, and Sean set out to assess Russia’s tobacco control efforts which included traveling back to Russia for on-the-ground field work to determine the level and prevalence of industry interference.
Courtney created an original dataset cataloging attacks on schools in Syria to better understand the magnitude of civilian causalities in that conflict.
Chloe, Paul, and Emi collaborated with a non-profit organization to improve resources available to individuals who are concerned about the potential radicalization of their loved ones.
These projects took us around the world. David traveled to Nepal, Robert to Columbia, and Fara to France. They allowed us to apply new skills: including stakeholder analyses and quantitative modeling. And most importantly we tackle real-world policy problems that touched lives.
As future policymakers, we can’t ask for better training.
So where is the class of 2018 headed? In short everywhere. We are headed to international organization such as the World Bank, we are headed to government service, we are pursuing PhDs, we’re joining political campaigns, we are starting companies inspired by classes we took here. We are going out into the world to take on some of the most vexing problems facing the international community.
There is a Doctor Seuss quote from the Lorax that I am particularly fond of and that captures the importance of this desire to engage and work towards a better world. At the end of the story the Once-ler cautions his listener, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot nothing is going to get better, it’s not.” Today, there are no shortages of challenges, many of which transcend national boundaries and will require collective action to solve.
But this group of 20 individuals cares — we care a whole awful lot — and I am confident that wherever our individual paths may take us, these friendships will endure and this network of support will endure so that we can continue making a positive impact on this world that we live in.
And that, that is not only why I chose Stanford but why we all chose Stanford.
