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Allegheny College President Hilary L. Link officially welcomed the college’s Class of 2024 during a virtual academic convocation and matriculation ceremony for new students and their families today. The ceremony, typically held in the college’s Raymond P. Shafer Auditorium, was prerecorded and shared online this year due to event protocols promoting health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I so wish that you were all sitting before me in Shafer Auditorium and that you were able to be surrounded, in person, by all of your new classmates, faculty, and staff who will mentor, teach, partner with, and inspire you in the coming year and beyond,” Link said in her remarks. “You are surrounded by them, but under very different circumstances from what you or we might have hoped. Just the fact that we are gathered here, whether you are physically on campus or joining remotely, is a moment to pause and celebrate, and a moment to give thanks.”

First-year and new transfer students living on campus moved into their residence halls beginning on August 20. Students were screened for COVID-19 prior to their move-in, which was staggered to limit the number of people moving in at one time. In addition, some students are commuting to campus from their homes or learning remotely during the fall semester.

“This will not be the semester any of you imagined, but it will still be the semester you make of it,” Link said. “ For those joining us remotely, I urge you to engage beyond classes, to connect with each other, to get involved remotely as much as you can, to know that you are as much a part of our community whether you are here or across the world.

“And for those of you who are in residence, I urge you to do the same — to engage in the classroom and beyond, to make friends with people from all walks of life, to follow the Gator Pledge you signed and make the health and well-being of yourselves and our entire campus and local community a highest priority.”

New students have already participated in a wide range of in-person and virtual Welcome Week activities introducing them to the Allegheny community. For example, students met virtually with faculty teaching their First-year Seminars, discussed this year’s common reading book, and attended information sessions from various academic departments and other offices. In addition, students had opportunities to play lawn games, join online icebreaker events to meet classmates, and get to know other students in their residence halls, among many other events.

During the summer, students and families also participated in the online Allegheny Bound summer orientation program. The program was designed to help students build community virtually and to guide them through the academic advising and course-registration process.

Allegheny’s newest students represent 340 high schools, 37 states and 27 different countries, and 28 percent of the class are first-generation college students. Sixty-two percent of the incoming class graduated in the top 25 percent of their high school class, with an average GPA of 3.52.

In concluding her matriculation remarks, Link shared a citation from “Citizen Reporters,” a book she read recently about the life and work of Ida Tarbell, Allegheny class of 1880 and groundbreaking journalist. The passage recounted Tarbell’s visit to her alma mater in 1913 to deliver the Commencement address.

Stephanie Gorton, the book’s author, noted that “A bright-eyed new generation of men and women looked to [Tarbell] for wisdom, and she liked what she saw. ‘I believe,’ she wrote to a friend, ‘that we are passing on in all this jumbled effort of ours, a better equipped youth than we have ever had before.’”

Link told students that they are “that next generation of better-prepared youth, and we are looking to you to lead through the jumble and the challenges our world faces, today and beyond. And Ida’s faith was well-founded: Allegheny continues to give students the tools and the opportunities to develop the intellect and passion to become difference-makers, however you might define that. … I can’t wait to see what you all accomplish in the coming years, here at the College, wherever you are today, and beyond.”

Fall semester classes at Allegheny begin on Monday, August 31.

Watch the virtual Academic Convocation and Matriculation Ceremony here.