September 3, 2024
Welcome to the start of Wellesley’s 150th year!
And, of course, a special, heartfelt welcome to the incoming bright red class of 2028, to our new Davis Scholars, and to our new transfer students. We are so happy to have you with us!
Welcome to our new faculty, to our new administrative staff and union members, and to those of you who are returning.
A big welcome back to our sophomores, juniors, and, especially, our seniors, resplendent in their robes. You are the bearers of our traditions, and we look to you to help everyone new here find their way into our community.
Indeed, convocation holds special meaning as it signifies the renewal of each academic year. This moment at the beginning of every fall is filled with hope and the anticipation of new possibilities.
You, our students, have probably felt this particular September moment of anticipation since kindergarten—possibly as early as preschool! I imagine you can remember the excitement of something as simple as a new and unfilled notebook that symbolized the fresh slate of the year to come. There might have been a new haircut, new backpack, reminders of a fresh start.
You were probably excited then for what you would discover, what you might have the chance to learn—or relearn in ways that allowed you to “see” differently. There would be the joy of renewing friendships with classmates you already knew. There would be the possibility of new friendships through a chance conversation. Maybe you’d even thought over the summer about a new way of signaling your openness to a conversation.
Even the former students among us—me, you, all of us in the faculty, staff, and administration—experience the same delectable sense of possibility every September. The chance to meet our first-year students is a chance for revelation. You refresh our community. You remind us that in helping to educate all of you, we ourselves are constantly renewed.
Every fall, all of us have a chance to redo, too—to correct old mistakes, and also to discover new aspects of our own characters.
I was delighted to see that in their application essays, our first-years are well prepared to surprise themselves here.
To borrow a thought from poet Walt Whitman, you all contain multitudes and contradictions. As people used to exceeding the world’s expectations—you are probably going to exceed your own expectations here. Enjoy the adventure that is your own development!
To our seniors, the new year brings the opportunity to think intentionally about how you will spend the precious time you have left at Wellesley. What new experiences are you determined to have before commencement?
At this moment of renewal, there are ample reasons for optimism. Many of us have just watched Simone Biles sail through the air triumphantly. This was after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she withdrew from competition because she couldn’t find herself in space and realized she risked severe injury if she continued. She has a telling tattoo on her clavicle, a quote from Maya Angelou: “And still I rise.”
In Paris, she did rise, demonstrating not only her fundamental belief in herself, hard work, and courage, but also real grace in expressing profound respect for her competitors. She even bowed to Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade, who bested her in the floor exercise. When we overcome obstacles, as Biles did, we are in a sense reborn.
And whatever your political leanings, it is impossible not to delight in another soaring woman. The unprecedented presidential candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black and South Asian woman—the daughter of immigrants—as the nominee of a major party is something to celebrate.
This fall, our country will undergo the form of renewal represented by the opportunity to choose a new leader through a democratic process.
To counter the violence we saw on January 6, 2021, it is more important than ever that we exercise our right to vote in order to allow the peaceful transfer of power to occur.
Democracy is demanding. Government of, by, and for the people requires the people’s participation.
On this campus, we fully understand the civic purpose of higher education—preparing all of you to renew our American democracy or to become an active citizen of whatever nation you call home. So we have joined forces with 76 other colleges and universities in an effort sponsored by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars—a civic-education-focused foundation—to connect what students learn in the classroom with the greatest societal challenges around us.
In such a politically polarized time, young people can sway the course of the future. So I implore all of you who are eligible to register to vote, to help other people register—whether here or in your home states—and to vote yourself.
Voting is an expression of hope. And there is no progress without the hope that things can be better, that life can be freer and fairer in future. This is what makes occasions such as this one so important. We celebrate a new day—and the opportunity to think constructively about how we can make change.
As we commit to a renewal of our democracy, it is also a time for all of us to think about the type of institution we want Wellesley to be to meet the current moment.
So many of you are passionately committed to worthy causes and profoundly pained by the suffering you see. While the pain has not gone away, this is a new year. I hope it brings with it the opportunity for all of us to have a conversation about the devastating and fraught situation in the Middle East—a conversation characterized by mutual respect.
How can we avoid targeting or excluding individuals due to their ideas or beliefs or backgrounds, whether they are Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, Jewish, Christian, Black, Latina, Indigenous, Asian, white, or any other ethnicity or group that exists on this beautifully diverse campus? How can we solicit the full range of perspectives from the people around us, so we can learn something new from them?
How do we make Wellesley the embodiment of such robust learning, both inside and outside of the classroom? How do we become a model community for joint explorations—open to new ideas that can sometimes be contradictory and challenging?
It is never easy to replace fiercely held convictions with open-mindedness and empathy for the people who disagree with us, and it never has been easy, throughout human history. But it is the only path to progress and peace.
The commitment I make to you, our students, at this moment of renewal is that as a community, we will work very hard to increase understanding all the way around. But of course, community is at its essence a collaborative effort. So I hope for your partnership in this effort to imbue patience and generosity into the ways that we relate to each other.
We are an institution founded in the belief that educated women are a force for a better world. This remains as true as it was 150 years ago—but it stays true because we are willing, every September and in the months that follow, to look at things anew.
Because, in truth, all of us have a ready source of inspiration and renewal in an emotion known as “awe.” U.C. Berkeley psychologist Dr. Dacher Keltner defines awe as “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.”
In a state of awe, we forget about our narrow focus on ourselves in order to admire something truly outside our own experience. And in the process, we become new to ourselves. We grow.
Nature is a reliable source of awe. To our first-years: You are now on one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world. There is ample opportunity for wonder every day, beside Lake Waban or beneath the magnificent canopy provided by an ancient tree.
But Dr. Keltner has found that the most reliable source of awe is the “moral beauty” of other people. Every one of us at Wellesley is surrounded by remarkable people—more remarkable because they never forget that there is always something new to learn and discover and create.
We are at a 150-year-old institution, where the people who came before us were wise enough to spark traditions that both create a sense of awe and also remind us of the beauty of this community of learners and scholars and leaders in development.
Today is one such awe-inspiring day. To our newcomers: I am so glad you have joined us. To our first-year students: I promise that there will be no lack of awe in your college experience.
To our seniors: I truly look forward to hearing about how you will spend your final year at Wellesley!
To everyone returning: It is a joy to be with you again.
Now, let’s have a wonderful—and wonder-filled—year!