An Optimist’s Guide to Finding Meaning at Stanford
How to Find Purpose and Direction On Your Way Through
By Alina Utrata and Ibrahim Bharmal
This week, two SGS students, Alina Utrata (History and Human Rights ’17) and Ibrahim Bharmal (International Relations and Comparative Literature ’18) wrote about finding purpose and direction during their time as undergraduates. Read an excerpt from their Guide to Finding Meaning at Stanford below.
NY Magazine recently published the article “A cynic’s guide to killing it at Stanford: How to Network Your Way Through Stanford University.” The article is a (cringe-worthy) guide for how the ambitious incoming freshmen should navigate Stanford, what they dub a “finishing school for the burgeoning independent commonwealth of tech.”
The two of us were — gasp! — Stanford literature and history majors, respectively. What a humanities major teaches you is that myths are important and stories have power. Articles like the NY Mag article perpetuate a myth about Stanford that we hear over and over and over again — that it is not only full of “techies,” but that those techies only care about self-enrichment, networking, and personal success.
Stanford is what you make of it. Yes, it is located in Silicon Valley. And yes, tech and tech culture permeates the campus and student body. We will not pretend like the world the article describes does not exist at Stanford. In fact, part of why it irritates is because it is correct.
But we love Stanford. And when you love something, you celebrate its positives. You highlight the good. And most importantly, you try to make it better. You can absolutely take “How to Major in Unicorn” as your guiding star and network your way through the University.
But we hope you don’t.
People usually associate Stanford with grads like Peter Thiel, Larry Page, Evan Spiegel, who epitomize “drop-out tech culture!” But Stanford actually has a rich tapestry of graduates who have gone on to impact the world (and perhaps less problematically than Thiel, Page and Spiegel).
Our alumni include the astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O Connor, William Rehnquist, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer (who majored in History, by the way). Michael McFaul and Susan Rice, who served as President Obama’s Ambassador to Russia and National Security Advisor, respectively, were classmates at Stanford. They both were involved in activism to pressure the University to divest from South Africa during Apartheid — and Stanford students helped catalyze anti-Apartheid activism across the world. Two presidential candidates, Cory Booker and Julian Castro, are Stanford graduates — as is MSNBC journalist Rachel Maddow. Sterling K. Brown, Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor known for his leading role in This is Us, majored in Theater and Performance Studies. We could go on, but the point is this: Stanford is what you make of it.
What the NY Mag article gets right is that getting into Stanford is a one way ticket into the privileged elite of the United States. The second you are admitted to Stanford, you will have privilege and you will have power. Over the next four years, you will watch your friends join McKinsey, and Goldman, and Google, and Palantir, and Facebook, and Blackrock, and all of these places where the power and prestige of a Stanford degree matter. You will wonder — should I do that too?
This is not a decision you will make tomorrow. There are a series of decisions you will face at Stanford, about who you want to be and what you want to do in the world. It’s easy to keep climbing the ladder. And while Stanford will tell you that you are amazing, it will not tell you that you have responsibilities.
But you do. You made it into Stanford on the backs of others — of your family, of your community, of a deeply inequitable and unjust society, of systemic racism and classism, of oppression and violence. You have a responsibility to the world that you live in — to make it a better place, to the best of your ability, in the best way you know how.
The NY Mag article invites you to ask yourself the question, “What should I do for me?” We challenge you to ask yourself the question, “What responsibility do I have to others? How are the gifts and privileges that have been afforded to be best utilized to help others outside myself?”
So, incoming freshman: Stay humble. Listen. Listen, listen, listen and learn. And, if we might offer some practical advice, sign up for HUMRTS 101 and visit the Handa Center for Human Rights at Stanford. The human rights community was the community that saved us, where we found people who valued and cared about the same things we did. The community you need is at Stanford — you just have to go out and find it, and maybe yourself along the way.
We’ve curated our own list of advice for incoming Stanford students: “An Optimist’s Guide to Finding Meaning at Stanford: How to Find the Beauty On Your Way Through.” We hope it will provide some useful tips and grounding advice as you navigate your way through Stanford, and through life.
№1 Regardless of your personal background and goals, Stanford is still an undergraduate experience
Although perhaps there are more NY Times articles written about them, undergraduate students at Stanford are still undergraduate students. Most of your classmates will be eighteen or nineteen, and it will show. For most of you, it will be your first time living away from home. You will make stupid mistakes. You will get sad and feel homesick (Alina went home almost every weekend during freshman year! Ibrahim cried every weekend of freshman fall while on the phone with his mom!). You will feel lonely, like you are the only one with no friends, and everyone is doing better than you. It’s OK! You’re growing up. You’re learning. It’s scary — but you’ll be alright.
“Four years is long, and you can change your friend groups, community affiliations, major, extracurriculars, living style, everything until you find what’s right. Some people click with what they want to do right away, but most dabble. I graduated surrounded by unfathomably wonderful friends, most of whom I didn’t meet until midway through junior year. Go easy on yourself and when you feel yourself worried about sunk costs and time wasted, replace those thoughts with considering the lessons learned and perspective gained instead.” -Julia Daniel, Human Biology, Class of 2017
“I think Stanford is a place, like any university, to grow, learn, make connections, and develop a concept for what you want your future to look like. Over my four years, I learned about what needs the world has and which of those needs I could perhaps work towards fulfilling. . . . The university offers space for people of all majors and interests to study and develop.” -Hana Kapasi, International Relations & Economics, Class of 2019
№2 Stay humble and realize that there are things beyond simply your “accomplishments”.
“You didn’t come all this way to just get rich by making some poor 14 year old addicted to an app you made that keeps them scrolling until 4 am and makes them feel bad about themselves. You are worth more than that! . . . Be critical — don’t take things at face value, make your own definition of success and what constitutes a meaningful life. Don’t do something for the sake of it — i.e. start a startup just because.” -Anjali Katta, Engineering Physics, Class of 2019
“Stanford is one of those places where you’ll find what you look for. If you look for people who can help you make money, you’ll find people who want to make money off of you. And if you look for people who care about you, you’ll find wonderful caring communities. . . You can fall into music, or a new language, or abstract math, or whatever your passion is. And whenever someone says “Stanford is this” — yes, it is that, but is also so much more.” -Max Vigalys, Electrical Engineering, Class of 2017
“If you do the internal work of getting your feet grounded, the opportunities to benefit the lives of individuals, communities, and (by extension) the world are limitless. My hope for any current and future Stanford students is that you will find the people, activities, spaces that enable you to feel full of light. To look honestly at what you’re doing and feel anchored, knowing how important and valuable this work is because it genuinely makes life better for someone (or many). The fleeting ego boost that comes from trinkets cannot compare to the joy that comes from purpose and meaning. I wish for you all this radiant joy. And, if you want to find it at Stanford, you will.” -Janet Coleman-Belin, Architectural Design, Class of 2019
