Student Alumni Council promotes Stanford spirit on and off the Farm

When Gheed El Bizri ’25 M.S. ’26 arrived at Stanford from Lebanon, it was difficult for her to find a sense of connection on campus. Upon joining the Student Alumni Council (SAC) as a freshman, however, she realized she had found her place.

“It was a very hard transition coming from Lebanon to Stanford, but I needed a place like [SAC] to show me what Stanford could be like,” said El Bizri, a copy editor for The Daily. “Now I appreciate Stanford so much. I’m truly very, very grateful that I’m at this school. I want other students to see it the way I see it, and be able to maximize their experience and get the most out of it.”

SAC is an organization under the Stanford Alumni Association (SAA), which organizes Reunion Homecoming — a weekend in fall quarter when alumni return for class get-togethers on the Farm. SAC advises SAA on developing student-facing programming while also building community within class years.

“At Stanford, it’s so easy to just get wrapped up in everything else I need to do, like my major, work, internships, all of that,” El Bizri said. “But at the end of the day, this is what keeps us going — it’s the Stanford spirit.”

For freshmen, Letter to Your Senior Self takes place in January at the Winter Warm-Up event hosted by Academic Advising and Stanford Career Education. SAC runs a letter-writing booth for freshmen at the event and delivers letters back to the students in the spring of their senior year. 

“My middle school teacher had each of his students write a similar letter, which we received near the end of senior year,” Shreya Singh ’27 said. “As a result of that experience, I was super excited when I saw the opportunity to write a letter to my senior self.” 

Letter to Your Senior Self is El Bizri’s favorite event — it allows students to see how much they’ve grown and achieved since freshman year, El Bizri said. Singh similarly appreciated this feeling of change.

“A couple of my friends and I wrote our letters at the same time,” Singh said. “I am most curious to see if I’ll open my letter with people I already know or if I’m yet to meet them.”

For upperclassmen, Junior Dinner Off the Farm allows students to meet alumni once they are more sure of their major and career goals. Alumni personally host small groups of students in their junior year for dinner — whether that means a home-made meal or a restaurant gathering. 

Staff advisor NaSun Cho ’98 said alumni are eager to host undergraduate students to maintain their connection to present-day Stanford life.

 “They want to know what’s happening right now,” she said. “They are always so curious.”

SAC events are not primarily about professional networking, Cho said. They’re also about fostering personal connections within the Stanford community. Cho added that alumni are interested in getting to know students as individuals — not for their career achievements — and that she strongly advises students not to feel pressured to treat dinners as networking events.

“You don’t have to have some fancy job or internship under your belt. The alums want to get to know you as a person,” Cho said. “They just really want to know who you are, and that’s more important than helping you to figure out your job.”

SAC will host its next big event on Friday — a Nerd Nation t-shirt giveaway to celebrate Big Game week.

“Nerd Nation is a point of pride for student athletes, but also for non-athletes, because when you’re an alum, you cheer for Stanford, and you know that we’re all a part of this Nerd Nation,” Cho said.

Ultimately, SAC encourages students to embrace the spirit and traditions that connect Stanford alumni across generations.

“That’s the beautiful thing about Stanford, that everyone is still very involved, and everyone’s still very curious, even years after [they graduate],” El Bizri said. “Coming out of Stanford, the relationships that you carry are so important, and I just feel so grateful to be able to have these connections with my friends here, but also with alumni. We all carry the Stanford pride.”

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