Speaking at Stanford's 118th Opening Convocation, President John Hennessy urged the 1,704 freshmen and 22 transfer students to become "enthusiastic" members of the academic community.

"Experiment and take intellectual risks," Hennessy told the audience of new students, their families and friends during the Sept. 16 ceremony in the Main Quadrangle. "Challenge yourself with courses in disciplines that are new to you. And should you occasionally not succeed, do not become disillusioned—just be sure to learn from your mistakes."

Hennessy spiced that time-honored advice with references to a book he read last spring, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time. It is the story of Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer who lost his way while descending K2 in 1993. He was rescued and nursed back to health by people living in a remote village in northeastern Pakistan.

Moved by their compassion, Mortenson promised to return one day and build the first school in their impoverished town. The 2006 book tells the story of his struggle to fulfill that promise—the school opened in 1996—and his decision to dedicate his life to building schools in some of the most remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"This true story has many themes that directly relate to the time that you students will spend here and how you spend it," Hennessy said.

"First, of course, is the importance and transformative power of education. Mortenson's message is that education has the power to change the world for the better, offering the people of Baltistan a better life for their children. I trust that as you prepared for this day, you also took some time to contemplate what you are searching for in your undergraduate education."

Hennessy said the story also showed the power of learning through public service—a longtime tradition at Stanford, home of the Haas Center for Public Service.

"One of Greg Mortenson's discoveries is that through his efforts to give something back in return for the help he received, he learns, grows and eventually succeeds far more than he had anticipated," he said, noting that the nonprofit foundation Mortenson establishd has built more than 78 schools, enrolling more than 28,000 children in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"But that came about only because he had a vision and a determination to follow that vision," Hennessy said. "So it is with your time here at Stanford. You will have many opportunities, but it is incumbent on you, as our newest students, to catch them."

He encouraged students to pursue their education with energy and determination.

"Now that you have arrived at Stanford, our request is simple," he said. "We ask that you become an enthusiastic member of this academic community. We ask that you take advantage of this opportunity—just as the children in the remote villages in northern Pakistan have embraced the new opportunity that Greg Mortenson made available to them."

Associated Students President Jonny Dorsey, a senior majoring in human biology, told the audience that, at first, he felt a bit lost at Stanford. One day during his sophomore year, he was dashing up the stairs of his dorm and saw a poster recruiting students to work in a refugee camp in Zambia.

"Four months later, I got on a plane for Africa," he said.

There, in a dingy back room in a clinic, he met a grandmother called Mama Katele.

"She spoke in short sentences in between pained coughs as she told me her story," Dorsey said. "She'd tested positive for HIV four years earlier, was very sick, and had no access to treatment. She wanted to use her last days to help others in her community learn about AIDS.

"The thought of this amazing woman dying soon for lack of treatment that costs less than 50 cents a day made my chest tighten in anger and sadness. But what made me cry that day was the beauty of her unwavering desire to face her illness and help others."

It was a life-changing encounter for Dorsey and two other Stanford students, who decided to launch a student campaign to fight AIDS in Africa.

"We had no idea what we were doing," Dorsey said. "We were just three average 20-year-olds. Our idea only became a reality because of the Stanford community. Professors helped us design our program. Alumni gave us moral support and helpful mentoring. And countless students devoted hours and hours of their time spreading the word."

In 2005, they launched FACE AIDS, a student-run nonprofit group whose grants support clinics in Rwanda run by Partners in Health, a global leader in the fight to bring quality medical care and social services to the poorest regions of the world.

"Today more than 150 schools are part of this movement," Dorsey said. "We've raised over $1 million and we've helped thousands of people suffering from AIDS."

Dorsey said the "call to serve is in the DNA of what it means to be a Stanford student."

It was a topic that Jane Stanford—who co-founded the university with her husband, Leland Stanford, following the tragic death of their only son—wanted to address during the first student convocation in 1891, he said. She wrote a beautiful speech for the occasion, but was too overwhelmed with emotion to give the address that day.

"I'd like to read a few words for her," Dorsey said, and read a passage from the speech:

"Leland and I have at heart … the hope that you will each strive to place yourselves a high moral standard; that you will resolve to go forth from classrooms determined in the future to be leaders with high aims and pure standards; and live such lives that it will be said of you that you are true to the best you know."

John Bravman, vice provost for undergraduate education, told the incoming students that Stanford is confident they will be able to answer the question the university will pose in the days, months and years to come: Who are you becoming?

"Such is our faith in you that we believe you truly are ready to answer this question in word and, more importantly, in deed," Bravman said. "But only over time. Our faith involves at its core our own belief that you have the fierce determination to challenge yourself in new and deeper ways. To confront life and its possibilities with new perspectives, and to pursue thoughtfully, deeply and thoroughly the life of the mind."

Richard Shaw, dean of admission and financial aid, encouraged students to evoke the openness of childhood, a time of pure joy and boundless possibilities, for inspiration at college.

"Together with your childhood dreams, consider your childhood heroes—real or fictitious," Shaw said.

"We want to emulate our heroes because of the profound impact their character had on our sense of self," he added. "Who are your heroes? What made them so? And how might this understanding translate to the person you hope to become?"

Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann, senior associate dean for religious life, closed the 45-minute ceremony with a benediction that ended with the blessing: "May our study be sweet and our learning be lively."