Convocation Celebrates Class of 2011
Da Chen speaks at the NCSU Convocation Aug. 20, 2007. Photo by Justin Buie.
By Dave Pond, Web Communication
About 4,750 first-year students made their maiden August pilgrimage to campus this week to begin their academic careers at North Carolina State University.
Their 2011 graduation will be the final chapter in a successful journey through the halls of NC State - one that officially began Monday night at the RBC Center with the sixth annual Welcome Week Convocation. Graduation and convocation have become fitting bookends to every successful student's college career, said Deb Luckadoo, NC State director of campus activities.
"It's very symbolic - for these freshmen, the next time they'll all be together is at graduation," Luckadoo said. "At some universities, convocation is very ceremonial and more closely mirrors a graduation. We decided a long time ago to make ours less formal. We want students to have fun at convocation, feel the community spirit and be inspired to achieve their goals and dreams."
Da Chen, author of NC State's summer reading selection Colors of the Mountain gave the 2007 convocation address to the record 3,500 people in attendance. Chen grew up during China's cultural revolution, and used higher education as a way to triumph over the poverty and adversity he faced under Mao Tse-tung's communist rule.
"Colors of the Mountain is a coming-of-age story about overcoming difficulties that all incoming students will be able to identify with and enjoy," said Dr. Laura Severin, professor of English, associate dean in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the facilitator of the book selection process.
"Since NC State has recently established exchanges with Chinese universities, this book seemed the perfect choice to familiarize students with Chinese culture, and to further NC State's goal of internationalizing the educational experience."
An accomplished flutist and calligrapher, Chen spent Monday and Tuesday touring NC State's campus, meeting with students from a diverse number of cultural, professional, and art programs.
"I really enjoyed it," said Leslie Herman, a first-year Park Scholar at NC State. "It was a story of overcoming his childhood struggles... taking bad circumstances and making the best of them. I was really excited to be able to hear about what happened to him and where he came from.
"I think it's going to really help motivate us and help us keep focused on graduation and our next four years at NC State," she said. "Hearing from him was a great starting point for us to build that foundation."
Luckadoo said that being able to read a book collectively before hearing directly from the author at convocation allows a group of relative strangers to share a common experience as they begin their college careers together.
"It's something they can come in having all experienced with one another," she said. "It provides a great starting point for initiating conversations, not only about the book but also about greater issues and topics that the book focuses on. It's really their very first community-building experience as NC State students."
At Monday's event, students also had the opportunity to gather information about campus organizations, participate in team-building and diversity-based activities and take part in what's become another NC State tradition - all first-year students don Wolfpack-red T-shirts to take part in a human "NCSU" photo.
"The T-shirts are a lot of fun," Luckadoo said. "They're always the same shirts, but it just really warms my heart - almost every day I see someone on campus wearing one from a previous year."
Posters from convocations past still hang in dorm rooms and offices across campus as a testament to just how special the event has become.
"The Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service is in charge of the human NCSU, and we have some great photographers from student media who take the pictures for us," Luckadoo said. "When the posters are distributed, it's fun to see students looking for themselves and their friends. It's a neat keepsake, and they really get a kick out of it."
Wolfpack Welcome Week offers incoming students an opportunity to experience and explore campus life through social events, service events, and more.
"I would never want anyone to think I've done this myself," Luckadoo said. "We have a great planning team and there are about 50 different organizations across campus that participate in the planning of Wolfpack Welcome Week."
"It's a very, very big program - a huge event - but the reward is just tremendous."