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Nearly 1,600 new ������Ƶ students gathered Under the Oaks for New Student Convocation on Saturday, Aug. 22, marking the formal beginning of their academic journey and receiving a challenge to embrace the “enormous opportunity of an ������Ƶ education.”

“We are intentionally seated here, under this beautiful canopy of century-old oak trees,” said Book. “These oak trees have weathered challenges and withstood change. They are symbolic of a strength that will unfold in each of you in the years ahead.”

A celebration of who you are

Rev. Kirstin Boswell, university chaplain and dean of multifaith engagement, opened the annual ceremony with the invocation, reminding students of this special moment in their life and college experience.

“It is a celebration of who you are—and who you are becoming,” said Boswell. “You have arrived at this place, at this crossroads, from which you will embark upon a journey that will increasingly become your own. So, begin from a place of confident centeredness.”

On their way to the ceremony from Alumni Gym, students walked through Alamance Building and passed the bell that once hung in Old Main before the building was destroyed by fire in 1923.

Vice President for Student Life Jon Dooley used the history of the bell to remind students that ������Ƶ’s recovery from that devastating fire was possible because members of the community came together. Classes resumed within a day, and Commencement was held Under the Oaks that spring.

“That’s what that bell actually stands for,” Dooley said. “Not that hard things happen, you already know that. It’s that ������Ƶ has never rebuilt alone, and neither will you.”

Dooley encouraged students to build relationships with classmates, including those whose backgrounds and perspectives may differ from their own.

“The cure for loneliness, the real key to building community, isn’t finding people who agree with you; it’s finding people who take the time to actually get to know you, including the ones who don’t see it your way,” Dooley said. “Spend your time focused on the person you’re with, instead of the phone you’re carrying.”

Meet the Class of 2030

The nearly 1,600 new undergraduates at Convocation include members of the Class of 2030 and 80 students transferring to ������Ƶ from other institutions. The new students represent 40 states and 19 countries, including Spain, Singapore, Norway, Serbia, South Korea, China and New Zealand. Among them are 203 first-generation college students.

Vice President for Inclusive Excellence Randy Williams spoke of the “breadth and depth of the experience of our new students,” highlighting four students who represent the “well-rounded, talented, and compassionate” Class of 2030

• Josh Cox ’30 from Wilmington, Delaware plans to study engineering, and was a decorated high school athlete in football and track at Archmere Academy, where he was also recognized for his academic accomplishments with an AP Scholar Award. Cox has completed annual athletic training internships with the NFL Los Angeles Rams every year since 2018. He was also selected to participate iExplorers Post 9-week course on government-grade aircraft manufacturing.
• Laura Kate Galbreath ’30 is a high-level cyclist from Greenville, South Carolina who plans to study business analytics & AI. In 2023 she competed in the USA Cycling Amateur and Junior Road National Championships, demonstrating her well-rounded skills by finishing 3rd in the road race, 4th in the time trial, and 5th in the criterium. She’s also a cellist with her school’s chamber orchestra and taught leadership through mountain biking to younger girls in her hometown through the GRIT program.
• Anna Gratz ’30 from Sugar Land, Texas plans to major in public health studies and is this year’s recipient of the William R. Kenan Honors Scholarship, ������Ƶ’s highest academic award.  She earned the Girl Scouts Gold Award and developed a toolkit to help children with disabilities to explain their disabilities to classmates, along with a website that she shared with Texas Children’s Hospital, school counselors nationwide and disability advocates.
• Binita Shaw ’30 from Udhailiyah, Saudi Arabia plans to major in biology, and graduated from Western Reserve Academy high school in Hudson, Ohio. Binita has been involved in immunology research on neuroblastoma, including studying the CRISPR knockout effects of a Glioblastoma gene through Cleveland Clinic, presenting the results at a national scientific conference, and publishing the study in the Journal of Immunology. She was also recognized for her efforts to secure a grant to support Read Nepal, an organization for which she served as a science and math tutor.

Students were also introduced to the faculty members who will help guide their academic experiences. Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Rebecca Kohn and Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Deandra Little highlighted ������Ƶ’s teacher-scholar-mentor model and recognized four 2026 faculty award recipients: Scott Proudfit, associate professor and chair of English; Sandy Marshall, associate professor of geography; Ryan Johnson, associate professor and chair of philosophy; and Sandra Reid, associate teaching professor of human service studies.

Kohn encouraged students to get to know their professors, seek assistance when they need it and fully engage with their courses.

Keep moving

That message of relying on others was also at the center of remarks from Student Government Association President Michael Swartz ’27. He recalled struggling in a course during his first semester and wondering whether he belonged at ������Ƶ.

Rather than dropping the course, Swartz followed his parents’ advice to stay, seek assistance and give the class his best effort.

“I learned that asking for help is not proof that you are unprepared,” Swartz said. “But often, it is the first sign that you are ready to grow.”

Three years later, Swartz told the new students that the experience taught him a lesson extending far beyond the grade he eventually earned: don’t let challenges get you down.

“Remember that the goal is never to walk perfectly,” Swartz said. “It is to get back up, laugh when you can, accept the hand beside you, and keep moving.”

In her address, President Book emphasized that while students will learn about new technologies and the latest discoveries in their fields, an ������Ƶ education remains centered on human values and relationships, and a “very real sense of your own power, your own human intelligence to shape the future.”

“At the core of ������Ƶ are the fundamental values of honesty, integrity, responsibility and respect. Values embraced in our honor code. Human values that are impossible to capture via artificial intelligence,” said Book.

A symbol of hope

Book also led students through a “human bar graph,” an exercise illustrating the opportunity represented by attending a private, residential university and the network of faculty and staff prepared to support them. As she instructed groups of students to stand as representatives of different groups such as those who attend community college, four-year public schools, private universities, etc., one student, Ava Hunter ’30, was left standing representing “private, residential colleges and universities like ������Ƶ.”

“Ava, you symbolize the hope expressed in the model we have designed and deliver here at ������Ƶ,” Book said.

At the conclusion of Convocation, students received an acorn, an ������Ƶ tradition symbolizing the beginning of their growth at the university. In four years, the Class of 2030 will be Under the Oaks again for Senior Baccalaureate, where they will receive an oak sapling.

The ceremony concluded with a musical performance by Jocelyn Bogart, Maya Spencer and Keller Knight and the singing of ������Ƶ’s alma mater before students recessed through a line of faculty members.

Book left the Class of 2030 with a challenge to take ownership of their journey.

“This enormous opportunity of an ������Ƶ education requires action on your part, a commitment to taking full advantage of all we have here,” Book said. “We invite you to a powerful journey of questions and curiosity that will shine new light and new understanding.”