UNIVERSITY COVOCATION WELCOME
Karen M. Whitney
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Marwick-Boyd Auditorium, 7:00pm
Welcome to Clarion University's annual University Convocation and to your first official
university event as new college freshmen! Give yourselves a hand.
We come together this evening to celebrate not only the beginning of a new academic year
but also your entry into our academic community.
As you may know, the word "convocation" means an assembly of fellow students, faculty
and staff welcoming you to an order of scholars. This event also concludes a series of
activities that each of you has undergone from preparing for years to enter college, to
applying to Clarion, to orientation, to registration, to Discovery Weekend.
This convocation also represents a beginning --- new friendships, new learning, new
dreams, new opportunities for exploration and self discovery.
It is an opportunity to discover yourself and to get to know others whose backgrounds and
experiences may be very different from your own. A chance to learn and to grow together
in an environment of mutual respect and civility.
In joining our academic community, you have the opportunity to interact with an excellent
faculty who are deeply committed to teaching and to working with you so that you may do
your best academic work leading to your graduation from Clarion University.
These opportunities bring with them many responsibilities. First and foremost, is that your
life is in your hands. You will have to take the initiative to seek out and construct your
college life. It's all around you but you will have to step up and seize the opportunities to
work with your fellow students and faculty.
I want to be very blunt with you. I want each and every one of you to graduate from
Clarion University. At your graduation from Clarion University I want to see one of our
trustees give you your diploma and I want to personally shake your hand as you cross that
stage.
So, this night, which is on the eve of your first semester, your first week, your first day as a
Clarion University student, I have three things I want you to do that I bet will get you to
that graduation stage. Here goes:
-Go to class every day. Don't miss a day. Going to class is Job One.
-Be ready for every day. Reading assignments, tests, papers, projects – no excuses.

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-Dare to care. Make friends and be a friend. You will need them and they will need you.
In closing, I would like to recognize many folks who are with us this evening and the many
folks who have worked hard to make this event so special.
We are fortunate to have with us this evening Mr. Chris Myers, a Clarion University student
and a member of the university’s Council of Trustees. Trustees are appointed by the
Governor to provide broad oversight of the welfare of the university on behalf of the
Commonwealth. They are civic leaders who have a great love of Clarion and are passionate
about your success. I am so grateful that Trustee Myers is able to join us this evening.
My sincere thanks to the University Convocation Planning Committee, co-chaired by Dr.
Todd Pfannestiel and Ms. Erin Schuetz; Mr. David Katis, our master of ceremonies; Mr. Rob
Hoover, who manages this wonderful auditorium; and Dr. Henry Alviani and Dr. Jeffrey
Wardlaw of our Department of Music, who worked with our students to provide our own
wonderful choir and music performances this evening.
In particular I would like to thank Dr. Martha Robinson, who led our procession with a
wonderful bagpipe rendition.
I also thank all the faculty and staff who have joined in this celebration.
Finally, to our new students who have now joined the Clarion University Golden Eagle
Family – take flight, soar high to live your life's dreams, work hard, have fun and . . .
Fly, Eagles, Fly!
Repeat with me. . .
Fly, Eagles, Fly!
Congratulations and have an eagletastic year!