THE INSPIRATION BEHIND STANFORD UNIVERSITY- MARK OMODIA (GUEST WRITER SERIES)

Stanford University  (officially Leland Stanford Junior University ) is a private research university in Stanford , California , and one of the world's most prestigious institutions.

For the third year in a row, Stanford is the most selective college in the United States, and in 2015 Stanford achieved the highest admissions yield as well.
Stanford is located in northern Silicon Valley  near Palo Alto, California . The University's academic departments are organized into seven schools, with several other holdings, such as laboratories and nature reserves, located outsidethe main campus. Its 8,180-acre (3,310 ha)  campus is one of the largest in the United States.  The University is also one of the top fundraising institutions in the country, becoming the first school to raise more than a billion dollars in a year.

Stanford faculty and alumni have founded many companies including Google , Hewlett-Packard , Nike, Sun Microsystems, Instagram and Yahoo! , and companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world. Fifty-nine Nobel laureates  have been affiliated with the University, and it is the alma mater  of 30 living billionaires and 17 astronauts.

Stanford has produced a total of 18 Turing Award laureates . It is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress .
According to Forbes, Stanford has produced the second highest number of billionaires of all universities. Eight Stanford alumni have won the Nobel Prize. As of 2014, 114 Stanford students have been named Rhodes Scholars.
Stanford University has produced several notable people in society, from tech gurus to entertainers to top politicians both in the US and abroad. (click here for an extensive and impressive list)

Stanford University was created by Governor Leland & Jane Stanford in honour of their son Leland Stanford Jnr, who died of Typhoid. Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, industrialist, and politician who Migrated to California from New York at the time of the Gold Rush and became a successful merchant and wholesaler.
He served one two-year term as governor of California after his election in 1861, and later eight years as senator from the state.
His only son, Leland jnr caught typhoid two months before his 16th birthday, while on a Grand Tour of Europe with his parents. He originally fell ill in Athens. His parents rushed him to Italy for medical treatment, first to Naples, then to Rome, and eventually to Florence, where he died after weeks of alternately improving and worsening. Leland Stanford Sr. told his wife that "the children of California shall be our children." To honor their son upon returning to the United States, the Stanfords devoted their fortune to a memorial in his name, Leland Stanford Junior University.
The university opened its doors in 1891.
Leland Stanford, Jr. is interred beside his parents at the Stanford family mausoleum on the Stanford campus.
After the death of his father on June 21, 1893, his mother guided the development of the university until her death on February 28, 1905.
Credits: Wikipedia