Duke University Opening Convocation | Class of 2028

(lively music) - Let us pray. God of life, God of Duke quads and so much more. As we stand on Coach K Court, we enter your eternal courts with praise for the extraordinary experience of orientation this past week. We delight in you and one another. As you conduct a spiritual EKG of our hearts, you see the beating pulses of excitement and nervousness vibrating in our bones and bellies. Some are ecstatic, others are unsure. Some still wonder how they were even accepted into Duke, while others are pretty confident that Duke made the right decision to accept them. Some wonder, will my roommate snore? Will RateMyProfessor.com be accurate? Will I be smart enough? Will I fit in and be accepted? Calm our fears with the assurance that we are all accepted, affirmed, loved, and honored because we are your children. Even as we bask in the illumination of this hallowed basketball temple, Cameron Indoor Stadium, let what this building represents guide our days ahead, the spirit of community, collaboration, care, commitment, challenge, creativity and cheerfulness. May we embody these values as we embark on this new educational journey, whether we win or lose or get hurt or become exhausted or go out of bounds sometimes or make successful passes of kindness on Abele Quad or slam dunks of excellence in class or even misattempted shots in relationships within our dorms. Let us be a Duke community that celebrates with those who celebrate and mourn with those who mourn, recognizing that we need each other every day. Thank you for those who paid for us, prayed for us, encouraged us, and mentored us to bring us to this delicious day, that earthly cloud of witnesses who went crazy for us in the bleachers of life. We remember them, even as we experience this Blue Devil joy today through faculty, administrator, staff, and students who will lead us to a deeper sense of gratitude for every good gift we will receive at this university and from one another. At the end of this orientation period, reorient us to what truly matters so that in this fractured world we would work to heal wounds and form bonds of love, so that the class of 2028 would be conducted into the hall of fame of revered humanity. Amen. Please be seated. (crowd applauding) - Class of 2028, welcome to Duke. My name is Heather Raslan and I am your Duke Student Government president. I remember what it feels like to be in your place, the excited countdown to move here since the day you got accepted, the readiness to spend every minute doing something new and meeting people. Orientation week was the first time I stepped foot on campus. Due to COVID-19, my senior year of high school was spent at home where my access to Duke was limited to the online pictures on my computer. I told myself, if I get in, I'm not taking a single day here for granted. So sitting at my convocation, I was mesmerized. Not only was it the culmination of achieving a dream, it was the beginning of experiencing it. I listened to my president speak and wondered what my experience leading to senior year would be. Standing here as a senior now, it is bittersweet, and the only lessons I can share are the experiences that have shaped me in the time that's passed since I sat in your seat three years ago and standing in front of this podium today. For every ounce of excitement, you carry an equal weight of expectation on yourselves. What has drawn you all to Duke are its limitless opportunities. Undoubtedly, I have learned incredible subjects, but that isn't to say that everything immediately fell into place. Don't be surprised that finding success takes time and is not linear. I remember opening my first exam grade. Not only did I not do well, I scored incredibly below the median. Like any adult new to independence, I immediately called my mom crying. I doubted myself and I just assumed that my peers were excelling while I was not. I lost sight of the fact that it was just the beginning. You won't get every position you apply for and you will have difficult academic days, but what matters is how you adapt. I could have not reached this point without pushing against setbacks and continuing to invest in myself. I could have never imagined that at Duke I would have the opportunity to teach a class to my peers or to travel halfway across the world to Uganda for research. You have a place on this campus where you will shine, do not be discouraged if it takes time to find it. And sometimes you find it in places you had never thought to look. I came into Duke very stubbornly focused on the activities I had done in high school. However, I quickly realized if I wanted to grow, I had to expand my experiences to things outside of my comfort zone. For one, and I am beyond terrified to admit this given where we are, I knew nothing about Duke basketball, had never heard of a Cameron Crazy. So if asked whether I would live outside in a tent for weeks for one game against some school called UNC, my answer would be absolutely not, no, thank you, someone else. But my freshman year was an iconic introduction. Not only was it Coach K's last season, we played UNC in the final four. Don't ask what the result was. So when my friends asked me to tent last spring, I said, "Yeah, why not?" As a result, I stayed a fabulous night through rainfall that led my tent not only to flood, but to rain from the inside somehow. And I can't say I enjoyed those 10 sleepless hours, but I would spend a week of nights like that if it meant being in here on game day in these stands. Standing here surrounded by thousands of Duke students, thousands of Duke fans, I understood what it felt like to be part of something bigger than myself. Duke has an infectious school spirit, an energy that makes you want to be surrounded by each other, and that energy extends far beyond the stadium. Class of 2028, I promised myself that if I was here, I would not take a single day for granted, and the truth is I never have. Every time I walk through campus to see students playing soccer on the quads or people sitting on the green table on BC Plaza between classes, I get excited like it's my first time stepping foot. The people of this school are exceptional, not only because of their diversity of thought and experience, but because of their continued desire to form connections. You will find pride and accomplishment in your academic career here, but you will find joy in the time you make for those around you. So go to your roommate's Awaaz dance showcase. Ask the person next to you in class if they wanna study together, even if you don't know them. And every once in a while, instead of taking the bus, make the walk from east to west, going through the gardens with a friend. Invest in yourself, even when it leads to setbacks. Say yes to the unexpected and stay active in the never-ending opportunities for connection on this campus. Attach your name to work that is a product of your life's experience and knowledge, not because it's easy, because it isn't easy, but because no one else can. The strength of this university lies in its diversity, so represent yourself in your work. Class of 2028, I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you. (crowd applauding) - Good afternoon, Class of 2028. As provost and chief academic Officer, it is my great honor to formally open the 2024-25 academic year. This convocation is an important tradition for Duke. We are marking the beginning of a new year in the life of this university and welcoming you to our community of scholars and learners, and we open the academic year together. I hope you will open your minds to learning about new ideas and open your hearts to learning about each other. Today and throughout your journey at Duke, you are surrounded by faculty, staff, and administrators who will teach you and help you navigate the many opportunities at Duke. We are all part of this community together and we are here to support your growth and success at Duke. As Duke celebrates its centennial, you are the 100th class to enroll at Duke University, part of an unbroken line of alumni who have called Duke home. I am delighted to welcome you, the class of 2028, through this extraordinary university community. I will now turn the program over to our dean of undergraduate admissions, Christoph Guttentag, for the presentation of the class. (crowd applauding) - Good afternoon. My admissions colleagues and I always enjoy finally seeing you all together in person, but of course, this year is special as we welcome the hundredth class of Duke University. I don't know if anybody's mentioned that before. I wanna begin by quoting from the student newspaper, the Duke Chronicle. So recently they found an archived copy of the Chronicle from 1925 and in it was a column characterizing the typical first-year Duke student from 99 years ago. So let me quote from that. "Especially does one have difficulty in discovering the typical freshman because of the heterogeneity of the members of this class. The trains, the trains bring these new men from climes that vary as greatly as sunny California and cold, bleak Alaska, from balsam-clad peaks of the Appalachians to the sandy beaches of Florida, from the rustic mountaineer homes of the Unakas to the palatial residences of Riverside Drive in New York City, and in individual differences, the freshmen vary as greatly as in environmental circumstances." So I think the columnist was someone with the wonderful name of W Freeman Twaddell, and it's disappointing that Freeman Twaddell ignored the fact that Duke had already been enrolling women at that point, and unfortunately it's too late to ask him now why. Other than that, I think what he wrote sounds pretty familiar, right? So like the class of 100 years ago, your class is both talented and diverse and I'd argue significantly more talented and significantly more diverse. Women and students of color comprise over 50% of the class. You've come to us from almost 900 cities and towns and over 1,200 high schools. You represent 87 countries and you represent all 50 states. So I wanna give a special shout out and thank you to Casey, Avery, Epiphany, Corin, Gabe, Phoenix, and Valerie, our first-year students from Alaska, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming. Because of you, we got to 50. Thank you. (crowd applauding) You make us look good. I also wanna mention your classmates who took a somewhat different path here by taking a gap year before coming to Duke. Among their experiences were completing wilderness EMT training in Wyoming, teaching English and robotics in Japan, helping to organize an Iron Man triathlon in Vietnam, and summiting Mount Kilimanjaro. So as striking as those experiences may be, they also reflect the appealing qualities we saw in all of you when we offered you a place at Duke. First, you have the imagination to think of doing something different than the norm. Second, you have the practicality to plan something in detail, the maturity and the confidence to get outside of your comfort zone, and the resilience to respond well when things don't go exactly as expected. And finally, you have the desire and the ability to make something better, to have a positive impact on the smallest scale or the largest. Each of you deserves to be here and all of you are ready for the challenge and the opportunity of being Duke's 100th class. I'll close with another quote from the same article from 1925 describing the best of the incoming class. And the columnist, Freeman Twaddell, I guess, said, "But always there are some who keep their heads, use their own judgment, and do not permit their personalities to be stifled. So that's still pretty good advice almost 100 years later. Keep your head, use your own judgment, and don't permit your personality to be stifled. So I want to take this moment now to invite Gary Bennett, Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Jerome Lynch, Dean of Pratt School of Engineering, and Candis Watts Smith, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, to please come forward. They're here. It gives me great pleasure to present to the three of you, to all of the faculty, and to the entire Duke community, the most talented, the most diverse, and, I think, the most interesting class yet, the centennial class, the Duke Class of 2028. Thank you. (crowd applauding) - Welcome. Trinity College of Arts and Science maintains our university's historic commitment to the liberal arts. In the classroom and throughout their lives as undergraduates, our students have the opportunity to encounter a full diversity of perspectives, which will prepare them to become the broad-minded and principled leaders of tomorrow. Having heard the Guttentag's introduction, I have great confidence that you are well positioned to pursue the course of study here at Duke. On behalf of the faculty of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, I'm delighted to welcome the class of 2028 to our vibrant university community. (crowd applauding) - Duke's Pratt School of Engineering takes great pride in preparing our students to be innovators who will solve tomorrow's complex societal challenges. You will learn from faculty who are experts in many exciting engineering areas ranging from data science and quantum computing to biomedical engineering and environmental engineering, just to name a few. And you'll have the opportunity to put what you learn into practice from the very first few days you're here through our first-year design experience. I share Dean Bennett's great confidence in the qualifications of this class. On behalf of all the faculty of the Pratt School of Engineering, I'm both honored and pleased to welcome the class of 2028 to Duke University. (crowd applauding) - Our undergraduate degree programs allow students to broaden their understanding of the world and to develop a deeper sense of their place in it. As Duke students, you will have a greater opportunity than ever before to bring about meaningful change, whether through your learning, service, or engagement with your neighbors. I join my colleagues in being impressed by this group. On behalf of the entire undergraduate community, I hereby accept the class of 2028 and welcome you to Duke University. Colleagues, please join me in congratulating them. (crowd applauding) - Good afternoon to the great class of 2028. It is my pleasure on behalf of the administration, faculty, and staff to welcome you to Duke University. It may be hard to believe that it's been just one week since we were all together right here saying farewell to your families. Whether you're a new first-year student or you began your studies elsewhere and have just joined Duke as a transfer student, I hope you had a great week of orientation and that you've begun to feel at home both here on campus and among your classmates. Feeling at home is important, and as a community we've developed an array of traditions to help you bond with this place and its people. As Provost Gallimore mentioned, this convocation ceremony is one example of tradition as we mark the opening of the academic year and formally welcome a new class of students to Duke. Here on stage, we're wearing traditional academic regalia that dates back to the Middle Ages and connects us to generations of scholars around the globe who have shared our commitment to learning. Once you've survived this gauntlet of speeches, another tradition of academic gatherings, you will join in singing the Duke alma mater, "Dear Old Duke", which was introduced 100 years ago by the graduating members of the class of 1924. The lyrics emphasize your lifetime connection to Duke that begins today and which will continue far beyond your graduation, regardless of where your life takes you. You'll hear the alma mater ring from the chapel carillon at five o'clock every Friday and we'll have many other opportunities to sing it together, including here in Cameron Indoor Stadium, right over here with the Cameron Crazies in the student section at the end of every game. And in four short years, we'll all be in academic regalia again for your commencement and your class will sing the alma mater one last time together. By then, you will have experienced a vast number of Duke traditions and likely started some of your own. These traditions are the ways, both large and small, that we bond as a duke community, a community of learners and scholars who support and uplift one another and propel each other to greater success than any of us would be able to achieve alone. You're now members of a global network of more than 200,000 students and alumni who are connected by these Duke traditions. The traditional excellence of this university has been systematically built over the past century, as you will learn from being part of our centennial this year. Our excellence into the future, into our second century, is now in your hands and in those of your classmates. I know that Dean Guttentag and his colleagues in admissions were right at admitting you to Duke and I share his confidence that you will do right by this extraordinary university. So to help you on your way, let me discharge one final tradition, which is to offer you a bit of advice as you begin your studies tomorrow. My advice is simple. The surest way to get it right is to be honest about getting it. Realize I may be going against the grain here. The world today seems to urge us all to stand by our convictions. We celebrate finding and following our passion, particularly in an election year. To be clear, strongly held beliefs and opinions certainly have their place, especially if they're arrived at slowly through careful study and with an open mind and grounded in a fair reading of the evidence. But in truth, how many of our beliefs and opinions actually stand upon that sort of bedrock of reasoned inquiry? How many, if we're being completely honest, are instead adopted through socialization, or taking cues from other people who seem more qualified to say, or other logical shortcuts that we rely upon out of necessity, really, given all the layers of complexity surrounding the choices we need to make? Of course we must be guided by our enduring values. And holding on to our beliefs and opinions, even those with less than worthy provenance, would be perfectly fine were it not for the unwarranted certainty, even ferocity and defensiveness, with which we often keep them. Even if we happen to be right, we have no cause for self-righteousness. But as I've noted elsewhere, we seem to be living today in a world more likely to respond to challenges with indignance, where opposing views are met with unreflective condemnation rather than conversation. Understandably, with wars engulfing much of the globe and with political tensions on the rise in so many nations and with so much social change and instability, our natural human tendency is to recoil and rebuff. We are right, they are wrong. In such an uncertain world, we crave certainty. Even, perhaps especially in such times, I hope you will see Duke as a place for getting things wrong. The word wrong comes to us from the old English, it meant crooked or twisted rather than straight. The difficult road to the right answer is often just that, a winding path with changing directions along the way. Please allow yourself, for your sake and ours, to take those necessary twists and turns. That's what universities are for. We will question you, we will challenge you, but we will not judge you for getting things wrong while we all work together to find the path to the right answers. Experience shows that what seems a wrong turn at the time often proves to be the way home. Now, for this to work, you also have to be patient with other people. When they at first seem so very wrong to you, keep in mind that they might actually be right, even when their ideas might seem impossibly strange to you, and yes, even if they should upset you. I assure you, we do all get it wrong from time to time, more often than we would like to admit. I've been wrong more times than I can count. For instance, I was dead wrong about dogs. A seemingly trivial example, but let me explain. As you're getting to know the university, two community members you're likely to see around this campus are my dogs, Cricket and Marlowe. They, like other dogs, are amazing, loving creatures. But you see, I didn't grow up with dogs. One of eight children in my family, I shared a bedroom with four other brothers until I was around six years old. And as you might imagine, there was not really much space for dogs, or cats for that matter. So my pet experience was limited to tropical fish and a small turtle. Neither experience turned out well, but that is another story. (people laugh) The bottom line is that I was never around dogs much, but I still had feelings about them, mainly apprehension, if not fear. They growl, they have sharp teeth, they're not particularly kind to rabbits or squirrels, so why wouldn't they take a nip at my arm or my leg? After I was married with children of my own, my wife Annette, who had grown up with dogs, began to lobby for one. I fiercely resisted, with my misgivings compounded by a belief that dogs were destructive and, given all of my serious investments in time as a do-it-yourself homeowner, my fear that they would trash the house. Well, my wife and kids eventually wore me down. And I'll be first to admit that I could not have been more wrong. Count me as a dog person today. Our 14-year-old labradoodle Cricket is the joy of my life. Our goldendoodle puppy Marlowe is a bashful but lovable member of our family. Dogs have contributed immeasurably to my life. And while we have cycled through hundreds of chew toys over the years, our home is absolutely none the worse for wear. Here is the point. If I could have been so wrong about dogs, so absolutely determined not to bring one home, how wrong might I be about other matters? How many other times might my quite real if unfounded anxieties and fears of different people, strange places, of unsettling ideas, have limited my experience and understanding of the world. The chance to encounter people whose life experiences, perspectives, and beliefs are different from ours is a gift if only we choose to accept it. Bringing you here together and creating conditions under which you can learn together, challenge each other, trust each other to talk honestly and listen carefully, and entertain the possibility that you might, just might be wrong, that is Duke's gift to each of you. Being open to sincere challenges to our thinking and appreciating others' perspectives doesn't weaken our values, but rather clarifies them. In a world that shouts, a world addicted to bullhorns and demands, ultimatums, and pressure tactics, this kind of close human engagement, grounded in dispassionate education, evidence-seeking and persuasion, is not easy, but the world sorely needs it, and you are fully capable of it. Try this. When you find yourself tempted to say, that's outrageous, or I disagree, or how could you think that, instead say, tell me more about why you think that. Eight words we would all do well to remember. Saying tell me more about why you think that invites conversation and discourse. It shows someone you're interested in their perspective. It opens the door for them to explain their position and maybe even the life experiences that led to that position in a conversational way. This can be challenging, both for the person pausing to ask for more information and for the person who's asked to share more about their perspective, especially if they feel that their perspective is not well understood or well represented here at Duke. But if you listen carefully, you might just be persuaded or you might persuade someone yourself, but you will learn in any event. You will understand another person, a fellow traveler in our confusing, expansive, human world a little better. Again, the surest way to get it right is to be honest about getting it wrong. In closing, I have just one additional piece of advice to you today, which is something I share with all new Duke students. This place is exciting, as it should be. And I have no doubt you'll be engaged in many, many new activities and pursuits, as you should. But please be sure to get some sleep. Just as the surest way to get it right is to be honest about getting it wrong, the surest way to be our best is to get some rest. So turn off those phones. We all need enough sleep to keep our minds alert and our hearts open. Duke University Class of 2028, we are thrilled that you are here. You are poised to play an important role in this great university's second century, and I cannot wait to see everything you will achieve. Thank you. (crowd applauding) - Hello, everybody. My name is Victoria Ko. I'm Trinity College Class of 2026, majoring in chemistry and biology, and I'm a member of the Duke Chorale. As you near the conclusion of one of your first official gatherings as undergraduate students of Duke University, I ask you to join me in a time-honored tradition, the singing of the alma mater. "Dear Old Duke", as it is now popularly known, was composed by Robert Henry James, a member of the Trinity College Class of 1924. He said he was inspired to write a song that would show his gratitude and devotion to his university. I hope that the words of the alma mater will ring true for you, not only during your years at Duke, but throughout your lives, and that your time at this place will inspire you ever to turn indeed to dear old Duke. I will sing the alma mater through once, and then I invite you to join me in singing it. Please stand and remain standing throughout the closing procession. Welcome to Duke. (gentle orchestral music) ♪ Dear old Duke thy name we'll sing ♪ ♪ To thee our voices raise ♪ ♪ We'll raise ♪ ♪ To thee our anthems ring ♪ ♪ In everlasting praise ♪ ♪ And though on life's broad-sea ♪ ♪ Our fates may far us bear ♪ ♪ We'll ever turn to thee ♪ ♪ Our Alma Mater dear ♪ ♪ Dear old Duke thy name we'll sing ♪ ♪ To thee our voices raise ♪ ♪ We'll raise ♪ ♪ To thee our anthems ring ♪ ♪ In everlasting praise ♪ ♪ And though on life's broad-sea ♪ ♪ Our fates may far us bear ♪ ♪ We'll ever turn to thee ♪ ♪ Our Alma Mater dear ♪ (crowd applauding) Thank you. (crowd applauding) (lively music)