President Jonathan Levin's remarks at Opening Convocation

First-years, transfer students, and families: Welcome to Stanford!

We are glad you are here. We saw you moving in this morning. That is one of my favorite moments. Parents and families, we loved to see the pride on your faces.

Let me start with a prediction. It is based on a small amount of evidence. I think you will not remember much of this talk. But you will remember the feeling of arriving at Stanford.

I know this feeling. In fall 1990 I came to Stanford. A blue Super Shuttle bus dropped me with my two bags in front of Wilbur Hall. I remember the feeling well. I walked on campus in the sun, met a few people in my dorm, and I saw my room for the first time. Some of you may ask: have the rooms changed much? No. We call it eclectic.

I chose Stanford for openness and possibility. I chose it for the spirit of exploration. It did not disappoint. This is one reason I am still here today. I am excited to see you begin your own journeys.

This weekend I would be in Florida to watch the launch of another Stanford explorer. Jessica Watkins came to Stanford in fall 2006. She wanted to be an astronaut. I once wanted to play center field for the New York Yankees, so not all plans work. But Jessica's plan did.

At Stanford, Jessica studied geological and environmental sciences. She was a star on the women's rugby team. She helped win a national championship as a sophomore. She did a summer internship at the NASA Ames Research Center, and she studied how to grow plants in Martian soil. These experiences helped her to study for a PhD and to join NASA's astronaut program. Today, she is the commander of Crew-13 on the International Space Station. This is her second trip there. Stanford has graduated 27 astronauts, and more female astronauts than any civilian university.

I hoped to point at Jessica in orbit, but space missions can be late. The launch on Saturday was postponed. I hope to be there when it happens. I may see Jessica use her geology training on the Moon or on Mars one day.

I love Jessica's path. It connects to a thought I have had this summer.

This fall, I teach a section of COLLEGE 101. Many of you will take this course. It is a new class for me and it is different. I study economics. I usually teach game theory, innovation, or how to design markets. COLLEGE 101 is about the role of education in helping you live a good life.

Our freshman courses invite teachers from all over campus. Some of you will have writers, others a physicist, a doctor, or an economist who became a university president.

This summer I read many books: Plato, Du Bois, Tagore, Dangarembga, Epicurus, Seneca. I read Tara Westover's memoir. I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

These books talk about how education should look. They are about education in different times and places. You will talk about them in the course this quarter.

The readings raise a question. What makes a Stanford education different from many other educations? How will it help you live a good life?

I think there are three answers.

First, the freedom to explore. Some schools have a fixed course. Stanford is different. You start a real journey of discovery. You can take classes in many fields and meet new ideas. You can change your mind. Changing your mind is a big part of education.

My first year at Stanford I did not know what I wanted to study. I took a class on Eastern philosophy, a seminar on Dostoyevsky, and a hard math class. I later chose English and math as my majors. Jessica Watkins started as an engineer and moved to Earth science.

Isaiah Berlin described two kinds of thinkers: the fox who knows many things, and the hedgehog who knows one big thing. A liberal education gives you both. It helps you think well and be a good citizen.

Second, the idea of a research university. It believes in expertise. It matters. Teachers spend their lives in a field. You will learn from them. You will ask questions and ask them to explain their work. The exchange goes both ways.

All of us on the faculty know this. One of my favorite projects started when a student spent his junior summer at a used car dealership in Tucson, Arizona. The work was interesting. We wrote a paper about it. I learned a lot, and I think he did too. Some years later, he and his classmates started the most successful used car company in the United States.

Third, there is the campus life. Dean Shaw says you are an impressive class. You are here to become a person. Much will be shaped by others in dorms, dining halls, rehearsal rooms, sports games, and even in the fountains.

I hope you share Stanford's culture. The ideas are: excellence, openness, and optimism. The heart of the culture is a belief that we can work together and solve problems. It is the belief that the future is something you build, not something that happens to you.

You, the class of 2030, arrive at a big time. Technology is changing fast. It will change discovery, education, and many parts of our lives. Even here, in a place that started the semiconductor industry, modern computer design, and the internet, no one can say exactly how it will turn out.

Think of this. If you start with a blank sheet of paper and design a place now, what would you pick? A place with freedom to explore and change. A place with experts in many fields: science, technology, humanities, arts, social sciences. A place that looks forward and solves problems. So, I can tell you: you are in the right place.