2024 Baccalaureate Celebration

Baccalaureate (pronounced “bak-uh-lawr-ee-it”) at Stanford is a celebratory gathering for graduating seniors, graduate students, and professional students, as well as their families and friends. This gathering is part of Commencement weekend and is a bookend to the Opening Convocation held four years earlier.

Baccalaureate Speaker

Varun Soni

Varun Soni, an interfaith leader who is the first Hindu to serve as the lead chaplain on a U.S. college campus, will be the keynote speaker for Stanford’s 2024 Baccalaureate celebration in June.

Dean of religious and spiritual life at the University of Southern California, Soni will speak during the celebratory event for graduates, family members, and other guests on Saturday morning, June 15, at Frost Amphitheater. Commencement ceremonies will follow on Sunday, June 16.

Soni, who also served as USC’s inaugural vice provost of campus wellness and crisis intervention, became the first Hindu to be chief religious or spiritual leader of a college or university in American history in 2008. He holds a BA in religion from Tufts University, MTS from Harvard Divinity School, MA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, JD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and PhD from the University of Cape Town.

“Dean Soni’s commitment to religious diversity and spiritual wellness has been transformational for college campuses across the country,” said Tiffany Steinwert, dean for religious and spiritual life at Stanford. “Placing community and belonging at the heart of spiritual life, and the university itself, Soni has explored new ways in which higher education can support students as they create lives of meaning and purpose.”

Read the full article on the Stanford Report

Student Speaker Contest

The story of the Class of 2024 is singularly marked with social detriment during the formative experience that was our first-year transition from adolescence to independent college adulthood. If we may acknowledge the silver lining to this, however, it's that this dampened entrance has challenged us to confront the unexpected. This lesson in resilience and ambition resonates more profoundly than ever on the brink of graduation. We invite you to share these sentiments of Truth-seeking and self-development, your spiritual reflections on your Stanford story, and your future hopes as the Class of 2024 Baccalaureate speaker.

Contest Guidelines:

• Contest is open to undergraduate members of the Class of 2024
• Speech cannot exceed 600 words
• Submit the final version of your speech. You will not be able to edit the speech after submission. 
• Entries accepted now through Sunday, April 28, 2024, 11:59 pm Pacific time
• No exceptions to the deadline
• Attach your speech in Word format
• $500 prize will be awarded to the winner

Enter Here