能夠被錄取競爭最激烈的斯坦福大學錄取，是很值得慶幸的事兒。斯坦福大學2017錄取新生很可能會在開學前的暑假期間休息放鬆，他們在此之前的確很投入、也很辛苦。
但是，斯坦福校方管理層要求錄取新生，要認真的批判性思考一些複雜問題，並向他們指定要在今年暑假期間務必讀完的三本課外書，不僅要認真閱讀，還要在新生之間廣泛的交流與討論。
這三本課外閱讀的目的在於，開啟錄取新生閱讀、批判性思考、與交流研討挑戰性的主題，並在當今極其嚴酷的全球挑戰環境中，通過對挑戰性主題的研討，促進斯坦福大學錄取新生髮現未來的希望之所在。
'Homegoing,'by Yaa Gyasi
From Stanford:
"Homegoing follows the parallel paths ofthese sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the GoldCoast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to JazzAge Harlem. Yaa Gyasi's extraordinary novel illuminates slavery's troubledlegacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed — and shows how thememory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation."
'TheSixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,' by Elizabeth Kolbert
From Stanford:
"In The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert detailsthe evidence that human activity is causing what scientists call the sixth massextinction — the loss of as many as half of all living species on Earth.Kolbert traces the intellectual history of how scientists came to understandextinction and woke up to the impact we are having on the planet’secosystems."
'Salvagethe Bones,' by Jesmyn Ward
From Stanford:
"In Salvage the Bones, Ward gives us theBatiste family: Esch, a pregnant fourteen-year-old, her teenage brothers, andtheir alcoholic father, who are watching Hurricane Katrina brew over the Gulf.Set in the twelve days immediately surrounding the arrival of the hurricane,Salvage the Bones is at its heart the story of four motherless children, tryingto protect their home and one another against unimaginabledisruption."