September
10, 2004
Celebrating
Convocation 2004: The “Greening” of MHC
Photo
by Fred LeBlanc
Seniors Kristel
Thompson and Jennifer Gomez |
By
Cheryl Klufio ’05
Green “things” sprouted with
the light autumn rain at Mount Holyoke on Wednesday, September
8. At the convocation ceremony held in Chapin Auditorium to usher
in the College’s
168th academic year, no leaf was left unturned. It was all there,
from emerald and olive green to pine and viridian green. One
student was bundled in the deep green curtains of her dorm room,
another was tightly wrapped in green cling film by the designer
Saran. Chapin resounded with peals of applause from the College
community as the class of 2005 processed amidst all that green—the
class color for this year’s seniors—in black caps
and gowns.
Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian, Protestant chaplain, began the ceremony by welcoming
572 first-year students from 35 states and 32 countries, the “mighty
class of 2007,” the “remarkable class of 2006,” and, last
but not least, the “senior class.” Ayvazian said it was her hope
that while at Mount Holyoke, students would use not only “your mind and
your brain and your head” as stated by Jack Black in the movie School
of Rock, but also “your heart to connect deeply with one another” and “your
hands to be of service to the wider community.”
Rebecca Brent ’05, the Student Government Association (SGA) president,
rose in her turn to “welcome home … the greatest class that Mount
Holyoke has ever seen.” In addition to listing recent achievements of
the SGA, Brent paid tribute to the institution that has been “instrumental
in shaping us into the women we were meant to be” and encouraged students
to reciprocate and “rebuild and reshape [Mount Holyoke] into the place
we want it to be.”
Staff council cochair Pat Serio, senior administrative assistant at the Weissman
Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts, then urged students to avail themselves
of the “diverse, distinct, and welcoming community” of support
staff at Mount Holyoke College that “work[s] behind the scenes to make
this institution the spectacular place that it is.” Serio invited students,
in the spirit of Emily Dickinson, to “make every minute count, work hard,
relax and have fun, dream big, and just imagine the possibilities.”
The final greeting came from assistant professor of English and American studies
Michelle Stephens who said she could relate to the “reigning emotion … of
giddiness,” indicative of “impending liberation.” Stephens
encouraged the class of 2005, now “way past that first-year green feeling,” to “stop … look
both ways and then again a third time before you cross that street into your
senior year and the rest of your travels beyond South Hadley.” She encouraged
students to consider both who they have become and their destination and to “do
everything to ensure that you are in control of where you are going.”
To the accompaniment of a melodious invitation to “Come with me and we
can run across the sky” from the M&Cs, a Mount Holyoke’s a
cappella group, the assembly pondered over the gems of wisdom—emeralds,
of course—that had been imparted to it.
President Joanne V. Creighton, lighting up the stage with her blinking blue
earrings, explained how Mount Holyoke, “in a Dickinsonian way” is “such
a beautiful place to be.” She highlighted the fact that more important
are the people, who make the College so “formative and transformative,” proposing
diversity as a “necessary antidote” to global conflict.
The president then spurred students to play a more active role in politics
and government, citing the Weissman Center’s Voter Registration Drive
on September 12. Creighton urged students to “approach world citizenship
with confidence … and ambition.”
Mount Holyoke alumna Ivy Tillman ’83 led the gathering in a soulful rendition
of the alma mater.
Sister Shamshad Sheikh, chaplain to the College and adviser to the Muslim community,
brought the ceremony to a graceful close with a final blessing.
Faculty recessed, and organ music gave way to reggae, modern
Arab music, and R & B. The community milled into Blanchard,
Ham-McGregor, Prospect, and Rockefeller for a picnic that even
rain could not spoil.
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