A Lake Tahoe native, sophomore Sonnet Van Doren graduated from a high school class of six in the kind of place where everyone knew everyone. Now, she’s jumping and twirling before thousands of new faces as Stanford’s 47th Tree, and she’s completely unfazed.
It was during Admit Weekend, as Van Doren was searching for her new place on campus, that she discovered the Tree. From that moment, she knew she had to become it.
“I saw the band and then I was like, ‘I don’t know how to play an instrument and I don’t know how to dance like a Dolly,’’’ Van Doren said. “But then I saw the Tree and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life.’”
Each Tree is tasked with creating their own version of the unofficial mascot on a 45-pound aluminum frame. Drawing from her Tahoe roots, Van Doren modeled her leaves after the aspen, the only tree native to Tahoe that has leaves, rather than needles. Her design also features a pink, sprinkle-filled tongue.
Van Doren spent the summer building her tree while working as a Naturalist at Stanford Sierra Camp, where she led adult campers on educational hikes and taught them everything she knew about the nature she grew up with in her backyard.
“[She’s] very knowledgeable about specifically Tahoe but also nature in general,” said sophomore Christopher Owen, one of Van Doren’s co-counselors at the camp. “She is the Tree. She loves trees. Tree hugger-type energy. Very granola.”
In fact, Van Doren even married a tree in one of her stunts during Tree Week — the annual tradition where prospective “sprouts” perform outrageous, public stunts to compete for the title of Stanford Tree. There was a veil, an officiant, vows and a ring that she still wears to this day.
“I was tearing up,” said junior Ruby Coulson, last year’s Tree. “It was the tree I had gotten really close with over the past year. She didn’t even know that either. She just picked that one, and it was really beautiful. It was a really terrific ceremony.”
Van Doren centered her stunts around playful, tree-themed messages, like “Marriage Equali-TREE,” “Protect Biodiversi-TREE” and “Positivi-TREE.”
In another stunt, Van Doren rowed out into the Bay, doused a six-foot teddy bear marked with a “Death to Oski” sign in gasoline, set it on fire and swam back to shore. It should come as no surprise that she is most excited for this year’s Big Game against California, whose mascot is Oski the Bear.
When asked about dealing with embarrassment, Van Doren said, “Delulu is the Solulu,” citing a core principle of Tree culture: “Embarrassment is a social construct that needs to be abolished.”
“Growing up in a small town, everyone hears everything and you care about people’s perceptions on you because you don’t want to get into arguments over stupid stuff,” Van Doren said. “But Stanford is big enough where if I embarrass myself around someone, who cares? I don’t.”
Van Doren’s approach is particularly relevant to the Stanford community, which Coulson believes cares too much about LinkedIn connections and whether things are lame.
“We’re genuinely just freaky little animals on a freaky little planet trying to be normal,” Coulson said. “And Sonnet is really good at reminding us that we’re all just freaky little animals wearing a suit every day. She just wears hers that’s eight feet tall.”
Another core Tree principle is that the last 20% of any event is the hardest but most important. Throughout the selection process and now as a mentor, Coulson has especially admired Van Doren’s passion, “full-sendability” and how she has “no shortage of hype,” despite coming from a school with little spirit.
Sophomore Maicy Lee-Jones, another co-counselor at Sierra Camp, saw Van Doren full send New Student Orientation (NSO) just a few weeks ago.
“The Tree should have grit, and she showed that because she was in that costume in 100-degree weather,” Lee-Jones said. “Every football game, every event saying ‘hi’ to freshmen, every meal with the freshmen, every event where the president was at, she was there.”
“Put her through the Navy SEAL training at this point,” Owens said in response to Lee-Jones’ comment.
In her first couple stints as Tree, Van Doren has been lucky enough to witness Stanford football win two straight home games. The Tree’s responsibilities, however, stretch far beyond football, and Van Doren encourages students to explore the full breadth of Stanford Athletics.
“You have this opportunity to see these Division I athletes for free. Go watch sports. Go watch all the different teams,” said Van Doren. “There were some sports that I didn’t even comprehend. Like I knew they were a thing, but I didn’t really comprehend just because I’m from such a small town.”
From a small town to Stanford, there is no doubt this tree is growing.