We live in an increasingly interconnected world that faces complex problems on a global scale. People, goods, and ideas can circle the planet at great speed and with unprecedented ease. But so can disease, pollution, and violence. In the face of these profound challenges, we also see possibilities.

Stanford believes it has the opportunity and the obligation to bring its full resources to bear in educating leaders and addressing issues facing humanity in these key areas:

Arts & Creativity
Education in the arts and humanities is the foundation of a liberal arts education and serves three important roles. First, it prepares graduates to deal with the complexity, diversity, and ambiguity of human societies. Second, it draws out and develops personal creativity. Third, the arts bridge all cultures, providing access to the experience of people in other times and places. In the contemporary world in which Stanford graduates will lead and inspire, understanding complexity, finding creative solutions to problems, and navigating the richness of human culture are essential capabilities. To ensure our students develop these skills, we have launched the Arts Initiative.
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Environment & Energy
The 21st century is a critical time in our earth's history. The quality and quantity of natural resources—oceans, forests, freshwater, air—are stressed by the increasing demands of human activity. At the same time, nearly a billion people do not have enough food to eat and more than a billion do not have access to clean water. The challenges of providing the resources we need without irrevocably compromising our precious life-support systems are formidable. Through Stanford's Initiative on the Environment and Sustainability, environmental researchers and scholars are taking up these challenges, helping to ensure that current and future generations can live well on our planet.
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Human Health
Progress in improving human health in the last 100 years has been astonishing, but the issues we face today have increased in complexity and magnitude—the emergence of avian flu and new bacterial viruses, the limitations of known antibiotic therapies, the ongoing challenges of chronic disease, and autoimmune disease, for example. Progress in the next 100 years will require marshaling the expertise of researchers from a variety of disciplines and expediting the translation of discoveries from the laboratory to the patient's bedside. These are the goals behind Stanford's Initiative on Human Health.
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International Issues
The end of the Cold War brought a period of great optimism about the future of societies around the world. Reduced tensions between the superpowers promised a period of peace, and the accompanying improved trade relations promised greater economic prosperity. But more recent events have shattered much of that optimism—from genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, and the Sudan; to widespread poverty in the developing world; to conflicts in Chechnya and the Middle East; to the seminal tragedy of 9/11. These are complex problems requiring multifaceted solutions. Through Stanford's International Initiative, experts from across the campus are working on these and other problems from multiple perspectives, approaching them as opportunities for transformative solutions.
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K-12 Education
Among the greatest challenges in the United States today is the need to improve our public education system. U.S. students now perform relatively poorly when compared with students in other industrialized countries, causing concerns about our prosperity in an increasingly global economy. Our failure to provide effective education to our children not only squanders a national resource—these children's potential—but widens the gap between those who thrive and those who fail in society. At Stanford, we are working to address these challenges by developing leaders education, policy, and model learning environments through public charter schools.
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Public Service
Public service has been an integral part of Stanford University since its inception by Leland Stanford and Jane Lathrop Stanford. As noted in the schools Founding Grant in 1885: "Its object, to qualify its students for personal success, and direct usefulness in life; And its purposes, to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization, and inculcating love and reverence for the great principles of government."

Today, through the Haas Center for Public Service and across the university, academic study is tied to community and public service, strengthening communities and developing aware, engaged, and thoughtful public leaders.
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"Our goal for The Stanford Challenge is nothing short of building a university for the 21st century and beyond: A university that will better serve the world through the quality, impact, and vision of its research, and through the new generation of leaders it will produce. Embracing this bold agenda will require strong leadership from our faculty and the moral and financial support of our alumni, parents, and friends."

John L. Hennessy
Stanford University President
The Stanford Challenge