Upfront MENTAL HEALTH
TRANSPORTATION
How to capitalize on failure Stanford luminaries share personal stories of rejection in ‘resilience project’ by Chris Kenrick
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thing is the cloak that I’m wearing as I walk through life.” Other Stanford luminaries sharing their stories with the Resilience Project include award-winning writer and English professor Tobias Wolff, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, HP CFO Cathie Lesjak, novelist and School of Medicine Professor Abraham Verghese and retired chemistry professor Carl Djerassi, famous for his contribution to the development of the birth-control pill. The project was launched in 2011 by Adina Glickman, associate director for academic support at Stanford’s Center for Teaching & Learning. She was inspired by Harvard University’s “Success/Failure Project,” which generated a handbook for students called “Reflections on Rejections.” “I thought our students are similar and that it would be good to start something speaking to the same issues for Stanford students,” said Glickman, who coaches students who are struggling with academic or other issues. “A lot of times, when you’re feeling stressed, you feel like you’re the only one,” she said. Last year Glickman and her steering committee assembled a wish list of Stanford faculty and alumni they hoped would share their stories and began approaching people. So far, she said, “Nobody’s turned us down. In fact, the most common response is, ‘Which of the stories should I talk about?’” Of the 16 interviews posted so far, several — including those of Lesjak, Djerassi, O’Connor and Breyer — are restricted to viewers with a Stanford password. Glickman said that’s either at the request of the interviewee or because she hasn’t had a chance to clear it with the subject. She plans to continue adding stories, with a new focus on student stories, at the request of other students.
Daniella Sanchez
ejection. Many Stanford University students — having assiduously polished their grades and resumes to gain admission to the university — have never really experienced it. Some of Stanford’s respected professors, students and alumni now are sharing their personal memories of rejection in a project to teach “failure-deprived” undergraduates not to be defeated by setbacks but to capitalize on them. In the Resilience Project, computer-science professor and former Google research scientist Mehran Sahami recounts rejection letters for jobs he badly wanted; Pandora founder Tim Westergren recalls experiencing hundreds of rejections; and former freshman dean Julie Lythcott-Haims tells of feeling crushed after earning a D in the first quarter of her freshman year. “I just saw that as the university’s indication that I was in fact the one admission mistake in the great class of ‘89,” Lythcott-Haims recalls in a video on the Stanford Resilience Project website. “If I failed at this class that was supposed to be the easy entry point to academic life, then clearly I was not cut out for anything, so that was hard.” When she finally told her parents, “they reacted beautifully,” told her they loved her and helped her find resources at Stanford to help her get back on track. “Over the 20-plus years from that D in communications, I’ve learned how to sit with those disappointments and not let them become me,” said Lythcott-Haims, a Harvard Law School graduate who recently resigned to study writing and poetry after 14 years as a Stanford adviser and dean. “I sit and examine them and take from them what I can and learn from them. ... I strengthen myself and become a stronger, more effective person as a result of that bad thing instead of feeling that bad
Erin Simongs, a Stanford University graduate student, commutes from San Francisco to Palo Alto via Caltrain on Aug. 6.
Caltrain reports record ridership, revenue boost Caltrain’s average weekday ridership in June was a record 50,390, an 11 percent increase over June 2011, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which governs Caltrain, announced Thursday, Aug. 2. This was the first time in Caltain’s 149-year history that weekday ridership exceeded 50,000,
Stanford students are “amazingly diverse in personality and outlook and world view,” Glickman said. While some have never known rejection, others have overcome huge obstacles of poverty and homelessness but haven’t figured out how to transfer those coping skills to academic life in an elite institution. Others, when met with a challenge,
the board stated. Also, June was the 23rd consecutive month of ridership increases. As a result, Caltrain plans to restore four midday trains that were eliminated last year due to budget cuts and add two new evening trains in the fall. Caltrain attributes the growing ridership in part to schedule changes and
increased Baby Bullet express service. Caltrain revenue in the fiscal year that ended June 30 totaled $59.8 million, a 22 percent increase over the previous year, Caltrain spokesperson Christine Dunn stated. N — Almanac staff
know to roll up their sleeves and say, “What can I do differently?” “It’s a full range, but Stanford is such a challenging place to be that almost everyone feels at some point they don’t belong and they were the admission mistake, and it challenges their sense of belonging and sense of capacity,” she said. In July, Glickman presented the
Resilience Project to fellow educators attending the National Resource Center’s International Conference on the First-Year Experience. “There was a lot of interest by people in developing something similar” on other campuses, she said. N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly. com.
COMMUNITY
A celebration of cycling to roll into Palo Alto Palo Alto Gran Fondo set for Sept. 16
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n the list of things the Palo Alto community enjoys, bicycling and food are right at the top, and the Italian-inspired Gran Fondo bike ride and festival is bringing them together in a celebration of cycling and food Sept. 16 in front of City Hall. Italian professional cyclist Michele Scarponi will headline this year’s Gran Fondo (Italian for “big ride”), which features courses of 30 miles, 75 miles and 95 miles. The two longer courses take rid-
ers over the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Pacific Ocean before looping back to Palo Alto. Elevation changes of thousands of feet will challenge riders. Participants not looking to spend hours on a bike seat can take part in the Echelon Challenge, a 0.6mile loop around downtown Palo Alto for walkers, joggers and cruiser bikes. Hunter Ziesing, executive director of Echelon, the San Franciscobased nonprofit hosting the event, was encouraged by the turnout last
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by Dean McArdle year — the Gran Fondo’s first year — and is hoping for even more riders this September. “We had about 600 or 700 (participants) last year,” Ziesing said. “And we are expecting between 800 and 1,200 this year.” More than 40 charities will benefit from fundraising by Gran Fondo and Echelon Challenge participants. “The number of charities has gone from 17 to over 40,” Ziesing said. “About 70 percent of those charities are local,” he said, referring to
the Bay Area nonprofits. The entrance fee for fundraising teams is $5 for the Echelon Challenge event and $50 for the Gran Fondo. Echelon Challenge teams are required to raise an additional $100 for their charity of choice, and Gran Fondo teams are likewise required to raise $250. After completing the 95-mile Gran Fondo course, or the 0.6mile Challenge course, hungry participants can converge on a post-race food-and-drink festival. The event will offer a sampling of
dishes from local restaurants, including The Flea Market and New Leaf Market, along with a selection of cheeses from Pescadero’s Harley Farms. “I really want to get the people of Palo Alto who are health minded to come out and have a good time,” Ziesing said. More information on the event can be found at www.echelongranfondo.org. N Editorial Intern Dean McArdle can be emailed at dmcardle@ paweekly.com.