XASS: Welcome! Tell us a little bit about where you’re from and what you’re studying.
Walter: All right, my name is Walter. I was born and raised in San Jose, California, so not too far from Stanford, and I’m planning on studying mechanical engineering, though I’m interested in other things too.
XASS: What else are you considering?
Walter: I entered Stanford thinking I was going to major in philosophy before deciding that mechanical engineering better aligned with what I might want to do after school. I’m still planning on minoring in philosophy to get better at having conversations about faith and understanding what positions non-believers may be coming from.
XASS: What are some of your non-academic hobbies or passions? What are you into when you’re not being graded?
Walter: From my time as a Scout I came to really enjoy backpacking and the outdoors. I’ve also spent a fair amount of time this summer practicing welding, which has been very rewarding, and I’m learning how to play the alto saxophone with the Stanford band.
XASS: Alright, shifting tracks a little bit, how were you raised spiritually?
Walter: Right, so I was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church, actually, but I was raised in a Lutheran church, and that’s the church that I am currently a part of.
XASS: And how did you find Chi Alpha?
Walter: I came to NSO knowing that I wanted to find a Christian community, and I saw Chi Alpha tabling which put it on my radar. I read the little intro booklet on the book of Daniel that Glen wrote, which I thought was very good, and it encouraged me to come to reFARMation. After that, I’d pretty much settled on Chi Alpha as my spiritual home at Stanford.
XASS: Very cool. How was freshman year for you spiritually? Was it positive, neutral, or negative overall?
Walter: It was definitely positive. I think coming to Stanford, and especially being a part of Chi Alpha, I’ve met many more Christians my age than I knew a year ago, which has been incredibly encouraging. I have more people in my life encouraging me to grow in my faith, and witnessing their example has pushed me to give more of myself than I think I did before coming to Stanford. The last year was amazing, and I’m truly grateful for all the experiences and all the people I’ve gotten to know at Stanford. I’m looking forward to having three more years of that.
XASS: Do you have a favorite Bible verse or passage?
Walter: It shifts from year to year, but right now, one I think about a lot is John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” I really like that verse, because for one thing, it’s a really good summary of just what we believe. This sense of Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life provides essentially everything you need. If you want to know how to live or what to value—Jesus is the way and the life. Jesus is also the truth. He’s the one thing that we can be sure of, that we know. One thing I’ve learned throughout my time at Stanford, especially, is the importance of seeing the world with Christianity as the first lens— everything I know I want to know in light of the factual reality of who God is. So the idea of Christ being the truth is a very powerful thing for me. It’s critically important to me that I come to understand truth about the world starting from this very fundamental Truth. Bit of a long explanation.
XASS: It was great. So, a few closing questions. What do you like about Chi Alpha?
Walter: It’s hard to distill this down into a list, but I suppose there are three things in particular that I really like about Chi Alpha. One is, there is a strong sense of intellectual rigor. I think this is one of the things that originally drew me to it—the idea of looking at faith and at the Bible and being very passionate about being faithful to what it says, in terms of both our understanding of it and the way we apply it to our lives. I think that was why the Daniel booklet impressed me so much—it took this section of the Bible that I hadn’t really thought of in that way before, took an intellectual approach to it, and then made it very real for my life, which I think is ultimately a very important thing to do when it comes to Scripture, so I appreciated that.
That was what initially drew me to Chi Alpha. Then, as I spent more time there, I came to see how much people here care for each other and for those outside the community. I’ve gotten to know so many new people in Chi Alpha, all of them passionate towards the Lord, and they care so much about me, and about bringing their friends into Christianity too. Before I came to Chi Alpha, I hadn’t experienced a community where it was critically important to people to bring their friends—to share the good news with their friends and with their family, and to do everything they could to be witnesses for Christ. That was something that was missing from my life before Chi Alpha, and it’s something that I found and really respect in the Chi Alpha community.
The third one would be… honestly, I would say it’s the passion for worship. Chi Alpha does have a really good worship team, it’s true.
XASS: Awesome, just two questions remain. What advice would you give an incoming frosh who’s trying to navigate Stanford and grow in their faith?
Walter: Well, okay—navigate Stanford and grow in their faith, they’re related but I have two separate pieces of advice. For growing in your faith, just get involved in the Christian community as fast as possible.I know there’s a lot of options, so you don’t have to commit to one immediately, but there’s definitely a lot of stuff to do at Stanford, and if you do this first—if you make it the first thing and you get involved quickly, it’s much easier to make the time for it, because you start out with an empty schedule. If you wait, I suspect it could be harder for you.
And then my advice, for the Stanford experience generally: come to Stanford recognizing that you won’t really know what Stanford is until most of the way through your first quarter. You’ll arrive with some ideas of what you think will happen, or what classes will be like, or what you’ll get from the four years you’re there. Chances are some things will be more frustrating than you had thought, while other things you hadn’t anticipated or hadn’t had high expectations for will surprise you, sometimes dramatically. That was the case with spiritual community for me. I came to Stanford knowing I needed to have one, but I didn’t expect the kind of growth that I experienced after my first year. So, yeah, just go in and be open to the ways Stanford will surprise you.
XASS: Right. And the final question, which goes back to our very first spotlight interview when it was run by a student. Walter, are you in a relationship?
Walter: I am not.
XASS: Alright, and is that a place of satisfaction for you, or are you hoping that will shift sometime?
Walter: I’m hoping it’ll shift sometime. I hope to marry someday, so I’m excited for what God might have in store for me in that area.
XASS: Right. Walter, thank you for your time, this has been delightful.
