'Be ambitious for yourselves,' Casey tells DPU Class of 2017

Monday, August 26, 2013
Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE
Members of the DePauw University Class of 2017 make their way along College Avenue Saturday afternoon between unloading their belongings and having lunch on the East College lawn. Plenty of moms and dads brought their freshman student to Greencastle to kick off their college career Saturday and stayed to listen to opening remarks by DPU President Brian Casey and others.

While the start of classes is still a couple days away, the DePauw University Class of 2017 got a headstart on learning Saturday.

At the annual opening convocation, De-Pauw University President Brian W. Casey told the 677 incoming students, who began the day moving into their residence halls, "I want you to begin your education on this first day, and that means you have to get out of your own head.

"The advice I want to give you, today, right now," Casey added, "is to stop -- stop for a moment and let go of yourself."

DePauw's 19th president continued, "I am asking you to do this because your ability to learn, your ability to begin to see your future, your very happiness will depend exactly on your ability to get out of your own head and connect. To fall in love with something greater than yourself."

One of the most academically gifted and diverse classes in the school's 176-year history, half of the incoming DePauw freshmen ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class; 83 percent ranked in the top 25 percent. Approximately one-third of the new students come from historically underrepresented groups.

Ten percent of the incoming scholars come to Greencastle from foreign countries, while another 22 percent are domestic students from multicultural backgrounds, an increase of three percent from last year.

The new undergraduates arrived with their families Saturday morning and began the annual rite of move-in day. They gathered with their families and new classmates for a lunch on East College lawn.

The convocation, which began with the Class of 2017 processing under the arch at East College and through the campus, began at 4 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium in the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts.

Looking out over the students, President Casey noted, "I have never met a truly successful or happy person who is successful or happy alone, who made it all up from the contours of their own mind -- the mad, solitary genius is an anomaly. Great writers have great editors, great musicians have great teachers. Scientists, it has long been said -- because it's true -- stand on the shoulders of all the scientists who went before. Great ideas become greater when they are passed from one person to another.

"When you let go of yourself, you allow for the possibility of a productive humility -- and you allow for the possibility of awe. It allows you to stand before a work of art and be stunned by its power. It allows you to read history and be swept up by the past. It allows you to move past the boundaries of you; it allows the world to be big -- massively big -- and surprising."

The students also heard from English Prof. Wayne E. Glausser.

"No doubt some of you know exactly what you want to study here; others have more tentative plans; and still others are vintage 'undecideds,'" Glausser said. "Whichever camp you're in, you have a chance right from the start to surprise yourself with an interest you didn't know you had.

"We have a lovely assortment of first-year seminars taught by the people behind me. You're all enrolled in one, whether it was your first choice, or fourth choice, or just popped up on your schedule out of nowhere. Your seminar professor will nurture your skills in academic reading and writing, but it's not a narrow sort of training course."

The purpose, Glausser added, is to "help launch you as a sophisticated thinker and writer."

Students and their families started to head back to DePauw this weekend for freshmen orentation. A couple help their daughter tote her items west on Olive Street.

Unlike courses offered online, which are about "training someone in a technical skill, or transferring a body of established facts from an expert to a novice," the professor said DePauw students learn hands-on in small classrooms, make lifelong friends, and are immersed in an environment where ideas are "in flux, not fixed and inert."

"Your DePauw experience is not a run-of-the-mill college experience," student body president Walker Chance told the new students.

"It isn't just the liberal arts education," the senior added, "the amazing opportunities, or the social events around campus -- this experience is one that will shape who you are as an individual."

Chance continued, "Four years goes by quicker than you think. In a blink of an eye any one of you could be standing where I am -- in a blink of an eye your four years will have come and gone; in a blink of an eye you can become exactly who you see yourself becoming."

The program also included comments from Larry Stimpert, vice president for academic affairs; Cindy Babington, vice president for student life; and Brent E. St. John, president of the DePauw Alumni Association.

"Now your education is fully beginning, on a much bigger stage," President Casey told the students and families as the convocation drew to a close. "And we all need you to look out the windows of your world today, and tomorrow.

"The music of the 21st century has yet to be written. Someone in your generation is going to write that music. Someone is going to perform it. And someone from your generation will be the first to hear it, and be the first to be changed by it. That's what makes music possible. And it turns out that's what makes chemistry possible. And physics. And economics. And art. And life.

"So be ambitious for yourselves today, extremely ambitious," Casey added. "But also be ambitious for each other. The energy of your aspirations can be a source of energy for those around you. Celebrate the possibilities of your classmates. Boldness likes company."

Classes at DePauw begin on Wednesday, Aug. 28.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: