On June 15, 2025, we held our third annual Design Diploma Ceremony. The d.school faculty celebrated 110 design students in reaching this graduation milestone: 14 MS Design degrees, 96 Bachelor's degrees in Product Design, Design, and Individually Designed Majors.
To give you a sense of what it was like to be in the audience at the event, we’re excited to share the speeches, names of the graduates, and of course, photos of all the amazing members of our community.
We are so very proud of the work all of these students have accomplished, and can't wait to see what they do next. Congratulations!
MS Design Graduate Speech by Izma Shabbir
Hi everyone. My name is Izma Shabbir, and I’m honored to welcome you all on behalf of the 14 Masters in Design students graduating today. First, thank you to all of you who are here. Today wouldn’t be possible without the friends, families, partners, and support systems who are here to celebrate with us.
What’s a speech at Stanford without mentioning all the iconic ways history has been made here? We’re surrounded by creations that have shaped our society — the building blocks of the first music synthesizer, the first computer mouse, and even from our own Design program, the fountains at the Bellagio.
There is an undoubtable sense of legacy that comes just from existing at Stanford. Especially in our program, graduates have gone on to invent products so essential to everyday life that we barely notice them. Here, your legacy can be what you build, what you design, and what you put into the world.
This legacy of innovation is real and worth celebrating, and our culture values whatever keeps us on the cutting edge of discovery. But, there’s another kind of legacy we don’t talk about enough: the legacy of how we care for others.
I’ve been reflecting on this during my time here, especially this academic quarter. A few weeks ago, I lost my mom to cancer. After she passed, I heard story after story about the impact she had on everyone who met her. It was beautiful and overwhelming. People shared how safe she made them feel. How anything they told her felt protected. How she never said a bad word about anyone. How she quietly removed obstacles for people.
I had taken many of those traits for granted, because I figured that this was just how moms were. But since her passing, I realized: no, this was something more. This was how she lived — with intentionality, generosity, and love. That, too, is a legacy. Not just what she did, but how she made people feel.
Our legacies live on in the people who know us. We don’t exist in silos. Every interaction is a chance to express what we stand for. Every connection is a chance to show how we care.
When design is rooted in care, people feel it. Just look around you today.
The path to our ceremony tent is easy to follow, clearly marked with intention. Even the stage was thoughtfully considered. It’s not excessively elevated to create distance or hierarchy. Instead, it's at the right height to allow graduates and guests to feel connected on equal footing. And then there’s the setting itself. We’re not indoors or under harsh lights — we’re gathered beneath trees, surrounded by nature and eating popsicles. This was no accident. It reflects the heart of our program: a commitment to authenticity, community, and groundedness. When every detail is guided by care, it resonates. And today, we hope you feel that too.
As designers, knowing our values isn’t optional — it’s essential. Design is communication, care, and connection.
To my creative and passionate cohort, you’ve shown me just how powerfully design can reflect our values. So as my mom would have, let’s make sure to make people feel safe, feel protected, to never say a bad word about anyone and to remove obstacles for people.
And with that, thank you — and congratulations again to the Class of 2025. May our legacies be not just what we build, but how we make people feel.
Design Undergraduate Speech by Ariella Sandoval Pacheco
Good afternoon graduates, faculty, family and friends. My grandfather’s pomegranate tree. That is where my design story began. It grew in suburban Southern California, tucked between concrete and dry grass. The branches bowed low to the ground, aching in the summer heat. In late August, he’d peel back the fruit’s thick layers with stained hands.
My cousins and I would tie ropes to her branches and manufacture elaborate pulley systems. My first design project. By the time I was thirteen, the pomegranate tree had served as a fort, a castle, a jail, a swing, and a spot to hide and pee when you were too lazy to go inside.
In design classes, we have been taught to design for others, and not ourselves. However, we would be naive to think that we can design around our unique experiences. So maybe in fact my design story began two generations before me when, at thirteen, my grandfather, Ignacio Alonzo Sandoval, immigrated to the United States from Yurécuaro, a town in Michoacán, Mexico. With his siblings, he crossed the border in a van. Through the dusty windows, billboards painted the sky. A sign, “Go Further with Shell,” illuminated in yellow, welcomed him to California and East Los Angeles.
Quickly he found himself in a crowded classroom for non-English speakers. German, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish echoed through the hallways. Young shoulders bearing backpacks heavy with the American Dream.
It was under the fluorescent lights of night school, that he discovered a passion for design. He learned drafting, numerical control, and engineering programs, like AutoCAD. The sharp graphite of his pencil ran across each page. As an English-learner, sketches and math offered him security, no one expected him to speak. He landed his first job as a “tool designer,” working his way to become a “tool engineer.” He never earned a Bachelors of Science degree, but he did spend long hours observing those who had.
His diligent work afforded him a home with a barren yard in which he planted nopales, guava, persimmon, apple and that favorite pomegranate tree. This yard laid the foundation for my creative exploration.
When I told my grandfather that I was studying Design at Stanford University he listened carefully. I told him about the red couches and David Kelley. “Mija,” he said, “I am very proud of you.” But what I saw behind his eyes was a complicated pride, layered with relief. His shoulders relaxed. My opportunity to earn a degree in Design from Stanford, was a testament to his resilience. I had the privilege to study design, while he found it out of necessity. Now, I sat under fluorescent lights, drawing sharp lines across a new page.
In the design program, my first project, like most of you, was to build an automaton–a self operating machine. My group and I built a mechanism inspired by childhood cinema. Watching the characters come to life was exciting, but what excited me more was the chance to watch my classmates build their own unique stories through the automata’s animations. That for me is the beauty of design: it empowers storytelling through experiences and products.
In whatever form design takes for you in your future, whether it be a doctor, creative, engineer, teacher, may you find moments to honor the resilience of your story, and empathize with the stories of others you encounter along the way.
All of us gathered here, come from a myriad of stories, like those of my grandfather. I imagine that some of those people in your story are here with us today. So on behalf of all the graduates, I would like to say “thank you” to those of you who have patiently nurtured a graduate. You each have been a designer in our lives.
To end, I will leave you with a poem my other grandfather, Juan Pacheco, wrote for me:
Mija
Our long long day is over
We now must dip into
Our faith for solace
I’ll tell you
for me
It will be a road less traveled
Congratulations class of 2025! May you find your road less traveled, and continue to uncover the stories of your past as guideposts for your future. Thank you.
2025 Degree Candidates
FROM THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
BACHELORS OF SCIENCE IN DESIGN
Luc Alvarez***
Maya Alvarez-Coyne
Salvador Amezcua Hernandez
Kelsea An
Katelyn Margaret Bellissimo
Jonah MacPherson Bhisitkul
Jason Bloom
Jesus Omar Chavez
Joey Chen
Karina Chen
Tenzing Choezing
William Cline
Jalil Cooper
Zinnia Cooperrider
Michael Crinot
Elena Critelli
Jasmine S. Cruz-Rios
Sosi Day***
Bryan Defjan
Brooke Demetre
Camdyn Doucet
Lucy Duckworth
Angelina Syrena Duran
Madison Fan***
Nathan Foo
Brianna Freeman
Annabel Frist
Marvin Galdamez
Abigail Garewal
Nissrin Gehawi
Daniel Goldberg
Biak Tha Hlawn
Senching Hsia***
Hailey Hemi Hwang
Oriana Sanaa Miree Jackson
Sarah Jacob
Itzel Juarez
Katrina Kuo
Alice Marguerite Aye Thu Le Roux
Alexander A. Lee
Danna Lenis-Granada***
Stella Jingyi Li***
Ryan Lian
Katharine Littleton
Stacey Coleen M. Lubag
Mayahuel Gutiérrez Malik
Anna Matsumoto
Davis McCain
Mirelys Mendez Pons
Janesta Jean Noland Murphy
Tyler Simone Newman
Khuyen Nguyen
Ingrid Nordberg
Kristen Ok
Aisha Olasewere
Megan Orsak
Ariella Sandoval Pacheco***
Naima Patel
Chi Pham
Nhu Pham
Lucia Quintanar
Sadorian Robertson
Isabella Rolfe* **
Lee Rosenthal
Akshay Shah
Maximillian Shen
Cooper Smith***
Kai Ssempa
Chance Staples
Alexander Gillcrist Strong
Elizabeth Thomas
Dash Tsai
Kealia Victorino
Emma Wang
Maria Wang
Zitong Wang** ***
Marisa Woo
Amelia Yang
Kenji Zaharchuk
BACHELORS OF SCIENCE IN
ENGINEERING IN PRODUCT DESIGN
Genevieve Dandurand
Isabelle Eichhorst
Elijah Ezralow
Anapaula Gutierrez
Irving Mauricio Lamadrid Perez
Donghwan Park
Jasmine Sumpter
BACHELORS OF SCIENCE INDIVIDUALLY
DESIGNED MAJOR IN ENGINEERING
Ava DeConcini
Evelyn Hur
Spencer Seay
Sarah Jade Yao
FROM THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
MASTER’S OF SCIENCE IN DESIGN
Ahmad Mahmoud Shukri Abubaker
Veronica Chen
Jia Natalia Chen
Gatsby Frimpong
Mario David Garcia Causapié
Peter Harkins
David Tod Madey
Mollie Redman
Laura Carolina Segura-Gonzalez
Izma Shabbir
Arianne Etta Spaulding
Koh Terai
Kavya Raghavendra Udupa
Kalina Yang
*Graduating with Distinction
**Phi Beta Kappa Member
***Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society Member
Student Awards
Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering Scholastic Award and Ford Scholar Award
- Christy Wang
Robert H. McKim Award
- Members of Kelp Wanted and students from our Advanced Design Capstone: Daniel Goldberg, Senching Hsia, Hailey Hwang, Irving Mauricio Lamadrid Perez, and Maximillian Shen
- Members of the NFP’s and students from our Impact Studio Capstone: Bryan Defjan, Isabelle Eichhorst, and Madison Fan
MS Design Project Award
- Veronica Chen
- Mario Garcia
- Arianne Etta Spaulding
Design Community Service Award
- Kalina Yang