A new year has begun at Stanford, bringing more than winter quarter classes and rainy weather. 2016 marks the 125th anniversary of Stanford’s first class. The anniversary has inspired a number of celebrations, including Stanford 125, a project intended to celebrate the history of Stanford and look forward to its future. Several events and projects within Stanford 125 will be coming out within the next few months.

“We launched [the project] in October 2015, and we’re going to celebrate all year, culminating next October,” said Nicole Sunahara, director of special initiatives and leader of the project. “Oct. 16, 1891, is the day Stanford had its first day of school.”

One of the project’s biggest opening events was the Thinking Big about Learning Symposium held this past October. The project partnered up with the Graduate School of Education and the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning to put on the event.

“We feel that people in the Bay Area care so much about learning and education, so we thought it would be great to bring together some of Stanford’s leading experts and invite the community. There were short talks showing different representations of what Stanford is doing in education and learning. There was also a chance for the local education community to come together — almost a third of them had never been to campus,” Sunahara said.

In addition to the symposium, Stanford 125 includes various events and activities that incorporate elements from a number of academic and extracurricular areas, including ones put on by both staff and student groups.

“We are starting to see how different [student groups] are celebrating,” Sunahara said. “There was a student group that did a photo contest … There’s a Silicon Valley program coming up in April that is going to be in celebration of the anniversary. We also have an event coming up on Feb. 4 celebrating the founders.”

One of the big projects within the celebration is the publication of a virtual storybook, to be released in the spring.

“We wanted to depict a series of moments in the 125th year of the University, and so we ultimately gravitated to a photographic book,” said John Stafford, senior director of digital media strategy at Stanford, who oversaw the publication of the book. “The project is meant to capture some of the rich and diverse life at Stanford today — moments of joy, discovery, reflection, connection, sharing and much more.”

The book was a process in the making, taking several months to capture the daily life at Stanford.

“We worked with a very talented photographer named Alex Webb to make the images,” Stafford said. “Weeks of planning went into the shoot, which was conducted over 10 days in the fall.”

Other elements of the project can be found scattered throughout campus, including photos celebrating 125 years of Stanford history hung throughout Tresidder. In addition, there are banners illustrating the project on El Camino Real, opening up the celebration to the community outside of Stanford campus.

“Our goal is to make [the project] inclusive and to let people come up with their own creative ideas of celebrating,” Sunahara said.

The project not only tells the story of alumni and faculty but of other community members who have been impacted by Stanford’s legacy.

“We’ve had the chance for a lot of people to tell us how Stanford impacted them,” Sunahara said. “A lot of people met their spouses … a lot of people’s personal lives have been changed.”

“One surprise for me was the amount of people who aren’t students or staff here and have still been impacted by Stanford,” she added. “There are many ways that Stanford has had an impact, and it’s fun to hear those ways, both inside and outside of Stanford.”

The project can be followed on the website, 125.stanford.edu, which includes stories from alumni as well as a new feature called “Then and Now,” depicting aspects of Stanford that have both changed and stayed the same.

“We found that so many things have changed — whether it’s technology or transportation — but there are so many things that have stayed the same, especially the student experience,” Sunahara said.

While Stanford has undergone a considerable amount of changes in the last 125 years, certain themes and values have stayed the same, according to Stafford.

“What I find most remarkable are the consistent threads that have shaped Stanford throughout its changing history: diversity, commitment to accessibility, making a difference in people’s lives and, of course, a commitment to innovation,” Stafford said.

 

Contact Arielle Rodriguez at arielle3 ‘at’ stanford.edu.