A celebration of the opening of the academic year, Fall Convocation provides an opportunity to recognize the achievements of incoming freshmen and other students, and to encourage all to reflect on the meaning of a college education. It's an exciting chance to see many SU faculty march in academic regalia and, for most first-year students, provides the first taste of pomp and circumstance!

With this opportunity to realize your potential and pursue your dreams comes the burden of responsibility and self-reliance. Convocation recognizes your commitment to excellence thus far in your scholastic career, and the University takes this time to welcome new students to the SU family.

Fall Convocation takes place Friday, August 24, at 9 a.m. on Red Square. The guest speaker will be Jeannette Walls, author of the The Glass Castle, the 2007 New Student Reader selection.

In the event of rain, Fall Convocation will be held inside Maggs Gym and lunch will be held at the Commons.

About the Convocation Speaker:

Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, and spent her childhood in Arizona, California and Nevada. When she was 10 her family moved to a coal mining town in West Virginia where they lived in an unheated shack. At the age of 17, with less than $100 in her pocket, she moved with her sister to New York City, where they lived in an apartment in the South Bronx. After completing high school, she attended Barnard College and became a successful journalist, working at New York magazine, USA Today, Esquire, and most recently, MSNBC.

Her memoir, The Glass Castle, has won numerous awards, been translated into sixteen languages, has spent more than a year on the New York Times best-seller list, and has been optioned as a movie. Of it, one reviewer wrote: "Charles Dickens' scenes of poverty and hardship are no more audacious and no more provocative than those in the pages of this stunning memoir."

ALSO ON AUGUST 24:

Following Convocation, there will be mandatory Small Group Discussions for the New Student Reader from 10:15-11:15 a.m.

Students will then move to Academic Open Houses from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. for important information regarding their academic programs. Attendance is mandatory.

Lunch follows on Devilbiss Lawn for faculty and students.