The University of Lynchburg held its annual Convocation for new students at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 21, on the Dell in front of Hopwood Hall.
All told, 488 new students have arrived on campus over the past week or so. More than 100 are international students, hailing from about 20 different countries, among them the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, and Ecuador.
The newcomers also include 56 transfer students.
After an invocation by the Rev. Dr. Nathan Albert, University chaplain and assistant vice president for belonging, Lynchburg’s president, Dr. Alison Morrison-Shetlar, welcomed the students to campus.
Among other things, she emphasized that “the world needs you” and told the students they were “beautiful, brilliant, vibrant, diverse, spectacular, compassionate, powerful people that will cultivate a more innovative, authentic, and inclusive world.”
She said their Lynchburg experience will be “marked by opportunities to think independently and be innovative, looking at problems from new angles so you can find new and interesting solutions” and added, “Here, you’ll be encouraged to develop your character, growing into trustworthy, effective leaders who can show the world what authenticity really is.”
The keynote address for Convocation was given by Siobhan Byrns, 2024 recipient of the Shirley E. Rosser Award for Excellence in Teaching and James A. Huston Award for Excellence in Scholarship — among the highest honors for faculty at Lynchburg.
Byrns, a photographer and experimental artist, teaches in the Westover Honors Community and art department.
In her address, she first acknowledged that it might “seem a bit odd to have an artist at the podium of a university, speaking about research and scholarship,” adding that there can be a “horrible stigma” against art professors, with some believing that “artists are not scientific or marketable.”
She went on to defend art as “our one true global language” that “speaks when words cannot express” and “fosters our need to reveal, heal, and transform,” and something that has its hand in virtually everything.
“Everything from your shirt, to those shoes, to these chairs and these buildings have been designed or imagined by an artist,” she said. “Your bottles of water, your eyeglasses, your makeup palettes, your salon haircuts were all created by artists.”
“Yes, artists use chemistry. Artists use physics, optics, computers, charcoal, to create what you consume in fashion, music, cars, technology, advertising, movies, and literature every day without notice.”
Byrns also encouraged the students to never lose their creative spark and to follow their dreams — no matter how big or small and regardless of whether it makes sense to others.
“No matter how big or small your dream is, go after it,” she said. “No matter how loud the objection you hear, ignore it. No matter how scared you are of failing or getting a bad grade – try it. And never, ever take in the negative criticism you hear.
“Drown out the negativity of the grown-ups.”
Near the end of her speech, Byrns — recently returned from an artist’s residency in County Clare, Ireland — quoted Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde: “There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely — or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.”
She concluded, “Be brave. Take risks. Fail, fall, get dirty. Try a class outside your major, outside your comfort zone — the one you know nothing about. If you fail, pick yourself up, and try again. Just be authentic.”
