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Varun Soni named 2024 Baccalaureate speaker at Stanford University
The Baccalaureate is a student-led celebration with readings, prayers, and music – an amalgamation of the religious traditions in the Stanford community
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Soni will speak during the celebratory event for graduates, family members, and other guests on Jun. 15 / USC
Varun Soni, dean of religious life at the University of Southern California (USC), has been selected as the keynote speaker at the university’s Baccalaureate celebration in June to honor the outgoing graduating class.
Soni will speak during the celebratory event for graduates, family members, and other guests on Jun. 15, at Frost Amphitheater from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. local time, a day before the commencement ceremonies to be presided over by Melinda Gates. The Baccalaureate is a student-led celebration with readings, prayers, and music – an amalgamation of the religious traditions in the Stanford community.
“I am honored and excited to join graduating students at Stanford University as they celebrate their many accomplishments and as they think deeply about how to translate and transform their profound gifts, talents, and stories into wisdom and action for the world. I am also humbled to be the first Hindu to offer the Baccalaureate address at Stanford,” Soni said, according to Stanford Report. “And so, I very much look forward to gathering as a spiritual community at a time when we all need it most.”
Varun Soni
Varun Soni was born in India and raised in the US He has served as USC’s inaugural vice provost of campus wellness and crisis intervention and became the first Hindu to be chief religious or spiritual leader of a college or university in the US in 2008. He holds a BA in religion from Tufts University, MTS from Harvard Divinity School, MA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, JD from the University of California, Los Angeles, and PhD from the University of Cape Town.
As an undergraduate, Soni spent a semester living in the Buddhist monastery in Bodh Gaya, India, and as a graduate student, spent months doing field research across South Asia.
As dean of religious life of USC, Soni brings together the spiritual and scholarly resources of the university, provides moral and ethical leadership for the USC community, and works closely with 90 student religious groups and the 40 religious directors on campus. He also oversees interfaith engagement and community service initiatives, organizes interdisciplinary events that explore religion broadly conceived, and leads ceremonial and memorial events.
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