Good morning. My name is Esther Kang, and I am currently a senior. I am here today to share with you one particular piece of my journey at Stanford.

During my freshman year, one daunting question kept looming over my head: which major should I pursue? I am sure many of you can relate. I began by reflecting on my academic interests, but this wasn’t very helpful, since my interests were so broad. I decided instead to focus on what I was good at. But as I explored various majors in search of something that would highlight my academic strengths, I found myself feeling unfulfilled. My pursuit of knowledge was, for some reason, failing to satisfy my intellectual hunger, and I did not understand why until I took my first philosophy class during Winter Quarter of my sophomore year. The first work we studied was Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, a classic text written in the form of six meditations. What struck me most about this work were not Descartes’ theories, but rather, his pursuit of wisdom. He was not satisfied with the knowledge that he had gained throughout his life via physical observation. He wanted to grasp the truths of the things around him and especially of the things within him, namely his soul.

I began to seewith greater clarity how I wanted to make use of my time at Stanford. I wanted to seek not only knowledge but wisdom through my studies, wisdom that would help enrich my understanding of the world, of myself, and of God. And so I decided to pursue the Philosophy major, not because I was good at it and not because it was particularly useful, but because it allowed me to ask questions, raise doubts, and in the process, gain wisdom and insight. I wanted to both challenge my Christian faith and glorify God through my studies.

However, it would be quite misleading to say that my Stanford education has been all about academics. Much of what I have learned at Stanford has taken place outside the classroom. I have fond memories of late night conversations with my friends and dormmates. I also directed an a cappella group for two years, which taught me valuable lessons about how to be a leader, a motivator, and nurturer. And working on dorm staff this year has opened my eyes to the intricacies of community building, which is something that I could have learned in a classroom setting but would not have fully grasped until experiencing it firsthand.

My mom, who is without a doubt my greatest role model and one of the wisest people I know, has always encouraged me to learn something from all of my experiences. She also reminds me often that the life to which we cling so dearly is more fragile than we want to admit. And when we die, we cannot take any of our earthly possessions with us. But wisdom and enrichment of the spirit will remain within us for all of eternity.

I would like to end with a few verses from Proverbs 2, which I think sum up my Stanford journey nicely.

If you…[turn] your ear to wisdom and [apply] your heart to understanding,

and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.