Multifaith Baccalaureate Celebration 2005

All students, faculty, staff and friends are invited to attend Multifaith Baccalaureate Celebration 2005!

The Baccalaureate Celebration is, for seniors, the bookend to the Opening Convocation for the class four years ago. Under the auspices of the Office for Religious Life, baccalaureate includes a senior speaker and guest speaker, the music of Talisman A Cappella, Stanford Taiko and The Whole Noyse, and representation from many different religious traditions. Graduate school and professional school graduates, families and friends are also invited to this festive time of thanksgiving and inspiration for the future. No tickets are required.

Graduating students are asked to come with their caps and gowns, and meet inside Memorial Church at 8:30 a.m. for the procession into the Quad.

Dr. Sylvia Boorstein will deliver the baccalaureate address, “Remembering What Is Important.” Dr. Boorstein is a co-founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, and a senior teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. She has taught classes and meditation retreats nationally and internationally and is a member of a faculty of Western Buddhist teachers that meets with the Dalai Lama to discuss issues of teaching Buddhism in a non-Buddhist culture. She was part of the original faculty of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, an organization that provides meditation-based training programs for rabbis and other Jewish professionals.

Dr. Boorstein is a psychotherapist (M.S.W, University of California, Berkeley, 1967; PhD., Saybrook Institute, San Francisco, 1974) and contributes, through journal articles and participation at training conferences, to the ongoing investigation of the interface of Eastern and Western Psychology.

The Baccalaureate Celebration will also feature an address given by Jazib Zahir, Stanford '05, Electrical Engineering, and winner of the Office for Religious Life's inaugural Baccalaureate Student Speaker Contest. Jazib is an international student from Pakistan and is planning to work on the East Coast starting this September. During his stay at Stanford, he has had the opportunity to be involved with a number of organizations, most notably the International Undergraduate Community, The Stanford Scientific Review, Alternative Spring Break and the Interfaith Council. He was also given the opportunity to serve on dorm staff for two years as a Resident Tutor and Resident Assistant. But perhaps the biggest satisfaction of his stay has been the opportunity to represent the Pakistani and Islamic community at Stanford, and he hopes these groups continue to contribute to the diversity of Stanford in the coming years.

Senior Class Presidents and members of Stanford Associated Religions (SAR) will also participate.