Dean Jonathan Levin gave his remarks to the graduating Class of 2024 at their graduation ceremony on Saturday, June 15, 2024.
Graduates, honored guests, faculty, staff, families, and friends, welcome to the Graduation Ceremony for the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
I’d like to recognize several groups here with us today.
We have more than 500 students graduating from the MBA, MSx, and PhD programs. Could I ask you to rise? Let’s hear it for our graduating students!
Our graduates did not get here alone. The GSB faculty and staff have played a pivotal role in their journey through Stanford. Could I ask our faculty and staff to rise? Let’s hear the same appreciation for our faculty and staff!
Finally, we are joined by friends and family members who have provided our graduating students with support, advice, and love over the years. Graduates, could I ask you to turn, face your families and friends, and acknowledge them!
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I will remember many things about the Class of 2024: dinners, events, View From The Top interviews, having Graham Weaver’s MGE class role-play dilemmas in the dean’s office, the incredible talent on display at this spring’s GSB Show.
There is one thing I will remember most. That’s the community you formed.
That’s what came to mind immediately when I started to reflect on my remarks for today. Then I hesitated. The word “community” has become so overused, almost vacuous. However, for this class, I want to reclaim it.
The Oxford English Dictionary lists 23 definitions for community. Two are salient. The first is: “a group of people who share the same interests, pursuits, or occupation.”
That’s not quite right. You arrived at the GSB from hundreds of schools and organizations, and from more than 60 countries. By design, you had very different interests and pursuits.
Some of you aspired to become the world expert in a particular scholarly field: organizational culture, or the use of AI in financial markets. Some of you wanted to hone your investment skills, or start a company. Some of you wanted to pursue careers in sustainability or social impact. Probably a few of you just wanted time to reflect and have fun. I’m very confident about the success of that group.
But you did share one big thing. You came to Stanford to explore. To learn. So, you had the seeds of a community — a community for the purpose of learning.
The second definition of community is “life in association with others.”
You started that life when you sat next to someone at orientation and were curious. You got to know where they came from, what they cared about, who they wanted to become.
You continued that when you competed in Section Olympics, when you threw a silent disco party during a retreat, got “GSB married” to a classmate, or played “chase the chicken” in Palo Alto. You can explain that to your parents later.
More seriously, those of you in the Class of 2024 helped provide an answer to the question everyone has been asking this year, the question that is so important if American universities are to continue as the beacon for the world.
What does it take to build a community for the purpose of learning? And to do that in association with others.
There are two cornerstones.
The first is that everyone has the freedom to explore, to pursue the areas and ideas that interest them, to think for themselves, to reach their own conclusions.
That freedom is fundamental to American universities. It’s why Stanford’s motto is: “The Wind of Freedom Blows.” It’s the reason so many of you traveled halfway around the world to be here.
The second cornerstone is that we bring an open mind, and respect the different interests, ideas, and passions of the people around us. That we support their freedom to explore and learn. That is what allows us to be more than the sum of our parts.
I admire the way that you, GSB Class of 2024, demonstrated that this year — whether it was debating ideas in Keith Hennessy’s class, in TALK, in discussions in Town Square.
These cornerstones of freedom and respect are tough to set in tandem, as we are being constantly reminded this year.
It’s precisely this kind of community that I hope our institutions of higher education can bolster as the growing shadow of polarization and mistrust threatens to dim our shared purpose and possibility.
I know you will take this powerful ability and light with you as you graduate. The world needs your leadership to mend our divisions with the same curiosity and consideration that you brought to the first day of GSB orientation.
I’m proud to be graduating with you from the GSB this year. And I’m going to take this same set of values — freedom, open-mindedness, curiosity, respect — with me as I move onto my next chapter at Stanford.
Congratulations GSB Class of 2024 for all you’ve accomplished. We’re so grateful that you’re forever part of the Stanford community.