2012 Commencement weekend at Stanford

16 June 2012

More than 25,000 family members and friends gathered for Stanford’s 121st Commencement weekend. The keynote of Sunday’s Commencement ceremony was an address by Stanford alumnus Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J.. He spoke to the graduates who entered Stanford Stadium with the traditional Wacky Walk. Highlights on Saturday included the Baccalaureate address by Sister Joan Chittister, founder and director of Benetvision and co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women; and the Class Day Lecture by Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Below are highlights of some of the events

Slideshow: Commencement weekend in pictures

Cory Booker tells Stanford grads to be courageous, work together

Inspired by his father and grandfather, Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker told Stanford graduates to join a "conspiracy of love" that will lift them in times of need and challenge them to go beyond what they think is possible. "I say to you on this graduation," Booker said, "to join the conspiracy. To be a class of people that rejects cynicism. … Be lovers. Join the conspiracy and love with all of your heart and all of your courage."

Baccalaureate: ’Rebel, rebel, rebel - for all our sakes, rebel!’ Sister Joan Chittister tells Class of 2012

Answers are easy to come by – just Google them, Sister Joan Chittister told the Class of 2012 at the Baccalaureate ceremony. "No, what the world really needs from you now is the courage to ask the right questions without apology, without fear and without close-mindedness."

Class Day Lecture: Democracy is a ’universal value,’ Larry Diamond says

Drawing on Stanford’s motto, "The wind of freedom blows," social scientist Larry Diamond traces the rise of democracy since the 1970s, noting, "People around the world want to be recognized as having equal worth and basic rights. In a world of broad access to FM radios, satellite television and mobile phones, even the poor come to know that only a free society can secure those rights."

Law School grads are urged to strike a balance between career, personal life

"I leave it to you to decide whether someone can be truly happy if they reform prisons and right a string of wrong precedent, but make a mess of their relationships with friends and family; if they argue brilliantly and frequently in court, but too often with their loved ones; if politicians and reporters return their calls, but their children won’t talk to them," Robert Daines, the Pritzker Professor of Law and Business, told the graduates at the Law School ceremony on Saturday.