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Curry College today welcomed its Class of 2024 in a special virtual Convocation ceremony held via a Facebook Live event. The annual event signals the official start of their academic journey and lays the groundwork for a successful first year on campus. President Kenneth K. Quigley, Jr. led the virtual ceremony with a welcome to hundreds of students that attended online.
“I am welcoming you to what is the most extraordinary academic Convocation or launch of an academic year in the 141-year history of our College,” he said. “I have every expectation that this will be an outstanding year for our College and its people – a year of growth, a year of achievement, and a year of success over tremendous challenges of the pandemic.”
The Convocation student speaker Maeghan Avery ’23, a biology major, also spoke of a year of growth as she recounted her experience as a first-year student. “I can’t believe how much I have grown in just one year at Curry,” she said. “It can be hard to adjust to the college lifestyle, invest in yourself by finding a new hobby, club, or sport that you haven’t tried before. Invest in yourself by getting to know your professors. Taking time to invest in yourself will help you grow and become who you want to be.”
Faculty Chair and Politics and History Department Chair Dr. William Nancarrow also encouraged students to build new connections during their time at the College. “I assure you that you have arrived at a place where hundreds of faculty, staff, and administrators are looking to start building relationships that will last beyond your time at Curry, and in some cases, a lifetime,” he said in his remarks at the event. “Just as you enter the class as first-year students, many of us—myself included--will feel like first-year faculty all over again for a bit. But as members of a shared community, we will work together, learn together, and grow together through this year and beyond.”
Of the many pieces of advice offered to the Class of 2024 during the event, Curry College Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. David Szczerbacki’s message to first-year students to “take the long view,” is especially powerful with the ongoing challenges and conflicts of today’s world.
“We are all pre-occupied with the issues of the day – and rightly so: COVID-19, contentious politics, the power and potential of Black Lives Matter, economic chaos, and the realities of climate change, and more,” he said. “However, please do not shift your gaze from your future, your priorities. In taking the long view, think about how you want to be able to describe your first semester at Curry when you meet with family and friends over the winter holidays. Visualize the person you want to be when you walk across the stage to accept your Curry College diploma from President Quigley. Having goals will provide meaning and self-discipline as you move forward.”
The event closed with a new Keep Curry Safe video where students share some of the College’s new safety protocols including frequent hand washing and mask-wearing practices on campus.