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快活app鈥檚 Class of 2022 Experiences Pioneer Passage

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Author(s)

Madeline Phipps

Justin Beach

Chancellor Chopp encourages them to remember their ABCs: Ask questions, Balance and Connect

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More than 1,500 new 快活app students and their families gathered Tuesday morning in Magness Arena for Pioneer Passage, an event that serves as an official welcome into the 快活app community. A highlight of orientation week, it represents the first time all the students join together as a new class in the same space from which they will graduate in four years.

Students and their parents heard from Chancellor Rebecca Chopp and others on the importance of the values that will define their time at 快活app. In an address that focused on shaping the 快活app community, Chopp drew upon lessons from the memoir read by all incoming students as part of the听One Book One 快活app听program, 鈥淪eason to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way.鈥

Chopp noted that 鈥淪eason to Taste鈥 provides an example of how to create community. The book details the story of Molly Birnbaum, an aspiring chef who loses her sense of smell in an accident. 鈥淏irnbaum reaches out and learns everything there is about the sense of smell,鈥 Chopp said. 鈥淪he not only receives community, she creates it. Values and community are what we mean when we talk about 快活app. You鈥檙e here to create your own sense of values, but you鈥檙e also here to build this community.鈥

Chopp also discussed the history of 快活app, sharing examples of such high points as being one of the first universities to admit women to science degrees, as well as such low points as when the institution faced insolvency and almost had to close. 鈥淰alues are never perfect; they鈥檙e always evolving,鈥 she said. 鈥淕et to know your values, get to know others鈥 values, and do it in the sense of 鈥極ne 快活app.鈥欌

Finally, Chopp revealed her ABCs for college success. The first, 鈥淎sk questions.鈥 鈥淭here is no better time in your life to do so, and it is the key to your academic success and the key to building community,鈥 she said. Second, she continued, 鈥淏alance. Balance is the key to life. Make sure you鈥檙e doing well academically. Make sure you鈥檙e engaging with friends. Make sure you鈥檙e staying fit and well; make sure that you鈥檙e serving the public good.鈥

Last but not least, 鈥淐onnect.鈥 Chopp said. 鈥淚鈥檓 a first-generation college student. My family was poor, and most of my friends were also first-generation college students whose families were from the same socioeconomic background. It was in college that I learned about the sheer joy and fascination of connecting with someone really different than me.鈥 She added, 鈥淐onnect with someone really different. You need mentors and guides to do this journey.鈥

Students also heard from Jeremy Haefner, provost and executive vice chancellor. After starting at 快活app this summer, Haefner said he could identify with the incoming class. Todd Rinehart, vice chancellor for enrollment management, opened the event with statistics about this year鈥檚 incoming class, including the fact that 69 percent of students are from out-of-state and that they come from 925 different high schools.