Convocation: An evening of firsts
Two events bookend your life as a student at Carolina. This first is convocation, which might be the last time the UNC Class of 2019 gathers together until commencement.
Convocation at Carmichael Arena on August 16 was the first time Carolina’s Class of 2019 came together as a group. It may also be the last time they will gather as a class until Commencement in four years.
“If you think about convocation and graduation, they’re really two bookends of a very, very precious time in your life,” Chancellor Carol L. Folt said during her opening remarks. “So I want you first just to take a deep breath, and I want you to soak in this minute. I really want you to remember as much as you possibly can how it feels right now – when everything is fresh, it’s all new and it’s unknown.”
Everything about convocation was new to these first-year students, but parts of the ceremony were different from previous years.
One of the student volunteers raced back and forth on the basketball court, filming the crowd with a smartphone held high on a selfie-stick. UNC Samaa, Carolina’s first South Asian a cappella group, performed the opening music. Terry Rhodes, music professor and associate dean for fine arts and humanities, led the platform procession as faculty marshal for the first time.
This convocation also marked the first time a faculty member did not deliver the featured speech.
That honor went to a young alumna, Mary Cooper, 2011-12 student body president. After graduation, Cooper joined Teach For America and taught physics at a school in one of the poorest sections of Dallas. In one year, her class went from having the lowest physics scores in the district to the highest.
One of those high-performing students was named Manuel. Cooper told how Manuel had his heart set on going to Texas A&M University and got accepted, with a scholarship. But the day he arrived on campus, his fear overcame him and he asked his parents to take him back home.
“I wanted to share this story with you, not to scare you, but to share the lesson that I wish Manuel had heard,” Cooper told the first-year students. That lesson, she said, is that you deserve to be here, that everyone is scared at first and the best way to overcome the fear is to embrace it.
Chancellor Folt advised the new Tar Heels to:
- Have a vision larger than yourself;
- Walk around the campus;
- Remain humble;
- Celebrate and treasure diversity; and
- Be kind.
She also advised the class – who had been standing politely since the procession of the platform party – to sit down, to much applause and laughter.
Much of convocation also followed established tradition. Students received sealed blue envelopes when they entered, and, when Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost James W. Dean Jr. asked them to, tore them open all at once, creating a great shushing sound like a hard rain.
Inside were a tassel, to remind them about their goal to graduate, and a copy of the Honor Code. Provost James Dean and Student Attorney General Ina Kosova led the class in reciting the Honor Pledge.
“The failure of even one of us to uphold this commitment,” Dean said, “not only fails the individual but fails the rest of us and fails our beloved Carolina.”
In her parting message to the class, Folt referred to Oliver Smithies, Nobel laureate and Weatherspoon Eminent Distinguished Professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the School of Medicine.
“He comes in every day because he just knows that there’s another discovery waiting to be found,” she said. “That’s what we want for you – to wake up every morning knowing there’s a discovery waiting for you.”
The ceremony ended as most events do at Carolina, with people interlocking arms, swaying and singing “Hark the Sound.”
Then the students filed out to FallFest where they would uphold another fine college tradition – searching for free food.
