Dr. Donald Gibson addresses the class of 2017. Photo by Tebben Gill Lopez/The Mirror.
For Ro-Anne Thomas ’17, Fairfield University’s community and academics led to her decision to attend the school for the next four years.
“It feels like home,” Thomas said. “It’s a place you can belong and be yourself.”
Thomas is part of the class of 2017 that attended convocation at Bellarmine Lawn on Tuesday. Each year, administration, faculty and staff welcomes the freshmen class to the community.
“The convocation was very encouraging,” Thomas said. “It teaches us to always be open-minded and to rise to the challenge and seize the day. Carpe diem.”
For Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Rev. Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J., the next four years at Fairfield will allow students to challenge themselves.
“By engaging in courses of study that are unfamiliar [we will] truly receive what our hearts desire: to be our true self,” he said.
Fitzgerald believes that participation on campus is one way to acclimate to the community. “To our newest members, I would say join a club or a team, and if you find that club isn’t here, find a mentor and start your own,” Fitzgerald added. “The whole wide world is within your reach to be discovered.”
Continuing with the theme of maintaining an open mind, Dr. Donald Gibson, dean of the Charles F. Dolan School of Business, who delivered the fall convocation address, explained that people with open minds welcome innovation.
“An open mind is one ready for new ideas,” Gibson said, which involves having an “active learning experience, a vibrant learning community and the ability to exercise passions.”
According to Gibson, “Fairfield’s task is not simply to have students be good at something, but also to be good people, and that can be done with an open mind.”
Before the ceremony, students received two short readings that tied to the convocation’s theme.
Paolo Freire’s “On the Banking Concept of Education” emphasized learning, reading and writing, which he believes are all vital to freedom.
The other reading was Malala Yousafzai’s speech to the United Nations. Yousafzai is an education activist in Pakistan. Disapproving of her activism, the Taliban attempted to assassinate Yousafzai. She was shot in the head but survived and later recovered. In her speech, she said that education should be available for everyone. Gibson encouraged students to be brave, like Yousafzai, and ask questions.
Freshman Shaina Colombo thought the readings were interesting because “it tells you everything you’re used to is not right.”
“We’re not supposed to just be empty vessels, and it’s cool that before you even walk in the door, Fairfield tells you that you have to think for yourself,” Colombo added.
According to Gibson, “knowledge emerges only through investment and reinvestment. The goal is not just to educate the mind, but to change you as a person.”
By following Gibson’s ten tips, such as looking for reasons behind people’s beliefs, meeting new people and avoiding reality television shows, students will learn how to foster an open mind.
“You won’t know the power of your open mind until you use it,” he said.
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