O
ver the last 15 weeks or so,I’ve tried topass on some of the knowledge I’vegained working in the “real world”for10 years before returning to grad school.I’llrepeat what I said in my very first column,which is that I don’t pretend to know every-thing,or even a lot.But I do know a few things.And I do knowwhat it’s like to leave college.So I wanted toshare a few last tidbits of wisdom with all thegraduating seniors,as well as with manygraduate students who perhaps haven’t spentthat much time outside academia.Plus,it’s unlikely I’ll ever be importantenough to be asked to give a commencementaddress,so this is my moment.First,in terms of career,there are threetypes of graduating college seniors:Thosewho know exactly what they want and aregoing to do after college,those who aren’tsure but have picked something and thosewho are completely clueless and afraid theywill end up living in their parents’ basementat age 30,surrounded by pizza boxes and oldcopies of “People”magazine.To those of you who know exactly whatyou want,congratulations.It’s a gift to havethat certainty and to be passionate aboutbeing a doctor,teacher,investment banker orwhatever you’ve chosen.My main piece of advice is just to have a constant awarenessthat you’ve chosen your path for the rightreason,and not because of the money,oryour parents’ expectations,etc.If that littlevoice starts to nag you,listen to it.It might bepainful to change directions,but it’s a lot bet-ter than spending the next 35 years workingas an actuary when your heart is in interpre-tive dance.To those of you who aren’t certain buthave chosen a contingent path,good for you.You’re certainly not married to what youchoose,and people change careers manytimes these days.There are some employerswho will look down on a resume with a lot of short jobs on it,but others will recognize it asa sign of someone who has a lot of interestsand is exploring their options.I think as longas you’re always honestly moving towardsome goal,it’s OK to change direction oncethe reasons for doing so become clear.Finally,to those who have no clue,mysympathies.It’s difficult to find a path if there’s no clear favorite in your head.But thegood news is it’s possible to pick a job or ca-reer and still get meaning out of it,even if it’snot your life’s passion.And remember,everysingle job or career is going to have somelousy,tedious aspects to it,so don’t confusedisliking part of your job with hating the jobitself.So pick something,do it and make thebest of it.It’s easier said than done,and Idon’t mean to be glib,but there’s really noother way.Moving on from careers,the other thingthat can get difficult out of college is your so-cial life.The painful truth is it will never be aseasy to make friends as it is in college.Onceyou get out of school,people tend to developtheir own lives and patterns.Your early twenties is still a pretty socialtime,but once you start getting into the mid-late twenties,people have spouses,demand-ing jobs and maybe even kids.I have four col-lege suitemates all living in New York Citywho literally almost never see each other.So my advice is to make the effort to meetnew people when you get out of school,anddon’t just rely on seeing your college friends,even if you’re lucky enough to be in the samelocation.You’ll be amazed at how quicklyyou’ll wake up and discover your six bestfriends have left the Bay Area and are nowrespectively located in New York,London,Hong Kong,the Peace Corps,the Himalayasand somewhere in L.A.wearing a really loudshirt and trying desperately to get into theViper Room.Finally,remember that things rarely turnout the way you plan them.This is a particu-larly difficult lesson for high academicachievers who have always been able to suc-ceed by planning and managing their timeand efforts.But the world is not a big univer-sity,for better or worse.You’re not given any guidelines.You haveto make up the problem sets
and
solve themyourself.And sometimes the results don’tturn out as you had expected.So I think the one single best piece of ad-vice I can give is to do your best,and let go of the results.They’re often beyond your con-trol,anyway.Again,this is easier said thandone,but keep it in mind and I think it willhelp you.Do your best,give yourself creditfor your efforts,allow yourself to feel happywhen things turn out your way,and whenthey don’t,accept responsibility and learnfrom the experience,but don’t punish your-self or wallow in regret.Good luck to everyone;I sincerely wishyou the best.Thanks for reading!
David Goldbrenner can be reached at gold-bren@stanford.edu.
The Stanford Daily
Wednesday,May 27,2009
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rizona State University’s recent deci-sion to deny President BarackObama an honorary degree forspeaking at commencement on the groundsthat “his body of work is yet to come”waswidely ridiculed.“The Daily Show”took tothe hallowed halls of ASU,where severalinept students offered their opinion thatwhile President Obama was undeserving,“Presidents Benjamin Franklin and Alexan-der Hamilton”most certainly were.Lost inthe uproar was an important question—what purpose does an honorary degreeserve?The practice of awarding degrees
honoriscausa
dates back to medieval times.In 1470,Lionel Woodville—subsequently the Bish-op of Salisbury—was supposedly the first toreceive such a degree when he received onefrom Oxford.In modern times,honorary de-grees are typically awarded to visiting digni-taries on occasions such as the one PresidentObama was invited to speak at,namely com-mencement exercises.Unless a degree isawarded to a particularly controversial fig-ure—as was the case in 2008 when Washing-ton University in St.Louis bestowed oneupon conservative activist and Equal RightsAmendment opponent Phyllis Schlafly—they typically cause hardly a ripple.But David Starr Jordan,Stanford’s firstpresident,offered another perspective.Jor-dan wrote in his memoirs,“I still believe thatevery academic degree should representwork actually done in or under the directionof the institution governing it...It seems tome to give the university a certain dignity asexisting for purposes of instruction,not forconferring honors on outside persons.”Fromthe perspective of the editorial board,Jordanis exactly right.We at Stanford—as well as students atcountless other institutions—spend a greatdeal of time and effort immersed in our aca-demic studies.When we graduate,our degreesare a testament to caffeine-fueled,late-nightpapers,complex problem sets and group proj-ects,in addition to juggling extracurricularand social commitments.To hand a piece of paper to a visiting speaker,however impres-sive,diminishes the significance of a Stanforddegree.It is not a matter of elitism,but one of emphasizing the hard work and dedicationthat a degree symbolizes.Jordan’s decision to adopt “the Cornellrule that no honorary degree or degrees forstudies carried on in absentia should beawarded”understands that universities areplaces for learning,not degree factories.Es-tablished at Stanford’s founding,this rulecontinues to uphold the importance of an ac-tual university degree.Moreover,Jordan,who noted that “thisregulation has saved us much pressure fromvarious quarters,”would no doubt appreciatebeing spared the public relations nightmareASU has had to face.Many irate ASU alum-ni are currently withholding donations andmailing their own degrees to PresidentObama;one alumnus is even writing ASUout of her will.Likewise,Notre Dame’s deci-sion to bestow an honorary degree onObama—whose pro-choice stance is anath-ema to many of the nation’s Catholics—in-furiated many of their alumni as well.Thepolitics that accompany such degrees aresimply that—politics.The editorial boardbelieves that an academic degree should beuntainted by political considerations.Stanford has developed another methodof honoring those “who have renderedunique and outstanding service to the Uni-versity.”The Degree of UncommonMan/Woman,created in 1953,has been spo-radically bestowed on such Stanford pillarsas Lloyd W.Dinkelspiel,Herbert Hoover,Frederick E.Terman,William R.Hewlett,David Packard,Peter S.Bing and,most re-cently,John Arrillaga.By creating an alternative means of recog-nizing Stanford luminaries,Stanford is ableto simultaneously honor achievement andservice to the University,without devaluingan academic degree.Moreover,the Uncom-mon Man/Woman degree is given to alumni,who naturally possess their own Stanford de-grees.The University should be honored for re-specting the “dignity”of a Stanford degreeand eschewing the pettiness of honorary de-grees.When Supreme Court Justice AnthonyKennedy ‘58 addresses our graduating sen-iors in a few weeks and leaves degree-less,letus remember what President Obama toldASU,“that despite having achieved a re-markable milestone,one that you and yourfamilies are rightfully proud of,you too can-not rest on your laurels.Your body of work isyet to come.”Let the Class of 2009 depart Stanford,hard-earned diplomas in hand,and do them-selves,their families and the Universityproud.It is what we do with ourselves,not thehonors we rack up,that matters.
Honorary degrees devaluethe work ofreal graduates
EDITORIAL
Unsigned editorials in the space above represent the views of The Stanford Daily's editorial board and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Daily staff.The editorial board is comprised of two former Daily staffers,three at-large student members and the two editorial board co-chairs.Any signed columns and contributionsare the views of their respective writers and do not necessarily represent the views of the entire editorial board.To contact the editorial board for an issue to be considered,or to submit an op-ed,please email editorial@daily.stanford.edu.
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onsistent with my recent trend towardsbodily imperilment for the sake of “journalism,”I decided to spend a dayenrolled in Camp Stanford and see what hap-pened.If you’re unfamiliar with Camp Stanford,it refers to the lifestyle of those lucky bastardsamong us who have finished all,or most,of their required classes a quarter prior to grad-uating.In many ways,Camp Stanford is exactlywhat you’d think—naps,beer and mayhem.However,when high-achieving people com-mit wholeheartedly to doing nothing,itmakes for a strange situation.Mere hoursafter confirming the date of my planned in-vestigation,I received an email from theCamp Stanford listserv announcing my itiner-ary for the day,which ran from noon to mid-night.I was excited,but somewhat incredulous:Were even Campers too wound up fromyears of jam-packed schedules to know howto actually relax? Also,was this really a viableway to spend an entire quarter at one of thebest universities in the world?The next day,I arrived at Tresidder forlunch at exactly 11:59 a.m.,out of breath froman inspired sprint down the Row.James Bar-ton ‘09 (as is everyone quoted in this column),one of Camp Stanford’s three self-appointed“Head Counselors”and my guide for the day,sauntered in at 12:09.Clearly,“itinerary”was a much more rela-tive term than I’d thought.Like many “full-time campers,”those 148seniors who are enrolled in no academicclasses this quarter,James chose to do CampStanford because his job,with Teach forAmerica,begins almost immediately follow-ing graduation.For him,Camp Stanford washis equivalent of a summer vacation.“Day campers,”those students who aretaking a reduced course load (read:a finalPoliSci class and fencing),do so for a varietyof reasons.Some are finishing honors theses,some are already working and some are justplain burned-out.In any event,Camp Stanfordians arerarely completely inert;the main differencebetween them and the rest of us,James noted,is frame of mind.Like us,they still have thingsto do;unlike us,they refuse to get frazzled.After lunch,we played racquetball,whichJames described as the perfect Camp Stan-ford activity because it requires just enougheffort to leave you with a sense of accomplish-ment,but not so much that you feel drained.“It’s not too run-y,”he said,wrinkling his nosein distaste.James won all three of our games handily.Jack Cackler,who was also present,held hisown despite being forced (by me) to play withhis off-hand.I talked a lot of trash and scoreda total of two points.Were I a camper,maybe I would have lessrage and more hand-eye coordination.After racquetball,we continued onto theClaw,where we were met by a group of campers bearing inflatable rafts,speakers andbeer.There’s nothing quite so Camp Stanfordas drinking in a fountain while your friendsscurry between classes.A successful Claw experience requires si-multaneously drinking and floating betweenpithy conversations,while looking complete-ly nonchalant.I,however,kept spilling my beer (cardinalsin),then collided with the Claw itself in at-tempts to recover it (ouch).Only after I resigned myself to clutchingthe edge of the fountain was I able to actuallysocialize with the other campers in atten-dance.For a while,we talked about CampStanford:the perils of the 3 a.m.to noon sleepschedule and the spring-quarter hookup fren-zy—were you aware?Somehow,our conversation shifted to thetopic of community centers and diversity.“You see,”James proclaimed sagely,crackingopen another beer as he glided by,“When youhave down time,you can actually have inter-esting conversations.When you’re workingtoo hard,you just complain about work.”Point taken.After a much-needed nap break,we re-convened at Rose & Crown Trivia Night,where my confusing Dispatch for Phish de-nied my team a free round of beer.ThenJames invited me to a party,but it was all Icould do to drag myself home.It’s easy to dismiss Camp Stanford as awaste of time.There are so many great classesto be had here,and let’s be honest,you can bedrunk anywhere.Still,I value Stanford just as much for mypeers as for the formal education I’ve re-ceived.As graduation approaches,I’m in-creasingly aware that I will never be in suchuniformly brilliant and entertaining companyever again.I’m not up to round-the-clock socializing,but I enjoyed my Camp Stanford daynonetheless.Even more importantly,howev-er,I realized that the Camp Stanford mental-ity of cheerful capriciousness isn’t limited tocampers alone.I may be enrolled in 21 units,but there’snothing wrong with a little carpe diem nowand then.
Jenna would like to thank James and the rest of the Camp Stanford community for a lovely day.She apologizes for almost killing James multipletimes during racquetball.You can email her at jreback@stanford.edu.
DavidGoldbrenner
Happy campers
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JennaReback
You soon will be, too
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You’re not given anyguidelines.You haveto make up theproblem sets
and
solve them yourself.
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