Convocation 2015: The Class of Global Citizenship

Tom McKiver/The Mirror

“World’s Imagined” is this year’s theme, encouraging the student body to take advantage of opportunities to promote change and work towards global peace.

Fr. Paul Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, began Convocation by welcoming the class of 2015.  Michael Doody, S.J., director of Campus Ministry, said the Invocation, and Charlie Knights, FUSA President, gave a welcoming speech ending.  Fr. von Arx, President of Fairfield University, introduced speaker Danke Li, Associate Professor of History.

In her speech, Professor Li addressed the videos that were to be watched before convocation.  She explained that they gave a “message of the big picture,” that we are “living in exceptional times.”  Li went on to state that the lessons to be taken from the videos are the ability of students to connect to ideas of responsible global citizenship.

In order to better realize their ability to work towards global citizenship, Li asked students to partake in a self-examination in which there are three steps.  The first step involves recognizing that students are already global citizens.  The second step is to take personal actions to make a difference.  This involves taking courses on campus that one is passionate about, as well as joining clubs and making a difference in the smaller community.  The third step is gratitude for the Jesuit values provided and ability to be involved in the school both through classes and other activities.

Kaitlin McEwan ’15 stated, “It was a very inspiring speech that made me think about what I was going to do during my time at Fairfield.  I learned how I can be a global citizen.”

Kelan McDonnell ’15 claimed that “Professor Li’s speech on global citizenship was very nice; however, the whole event seemed thrown together and disorganized and that distracted me from the overall experience.”

Poems were then read by two members of the class of 2014.  The class of 2015 was given their class gift of globe stress balls symbolizing that they have the world in the palm of their hands.