Wolk: Savor the moment

“We’re making history,” President Dave Wolk said at convocation Thursday, Aug 27 in Casella Theatre. “We seized the moment, now let’s savor the moment.” This semester’s crowd at convocation was, President Wolk noticed, the largest crowd at convocation that he’s seen in a while. Part of that is because the freshman class this year is so large, and another part of that is because the students are taking a greater interest in the things going on around campus. As anyone traveling across Campus can see, there have been many changes to Castleton State College, though not all of them are as visible as the construction.

Castleton is close to completing its student initiative, and has had a record number of alumni supporters. Castleton also has a new uniform marching band, and now has a little over 1,800 undergraduate students–which is just under the 2,000 undergraduate limit.

“It’s overall a nice experience to see the changes going on around campus,” Freshman Katie Curler said.

Part of the moment that President Wolk mentioned is the diversification of the student body. Currently, there are seventeen different countries represented on campus. But it is President Wolk’s hope that sometime in the not-so-distant future all (or at least the vast majority of) the countries can be represented on the Castleton campus.

There were several speakers at this year’s convocation. One of which was the Vermont State Colleges Chancellor, Tim Donovan.

“Don’t pigeonhole yourself in one place as a teacher or a learner,” Donovan advised. “The world is changing, and we need to be all learning, and all teaching.” Teaching and learning is something that people do throughout their whole lives, whether they realize it or not. Even something as small as giving or receiving advice could constitute as teaching or learning. But often, the biggest part of teaching or learning is how it changes you. And some people change by motivating others.

Student Association president Justin Garritt praised a lot about the school, no matter what changes are being made, and partially because of them. So much in fact, that when the winner of the Outstanding Alumni Award, Michael Collins, came up on stage, his first words were, “Sign me up!”

For all the new students Convocation struck the right chords.

Freshman Isaac French said, “I thought that the student speaker [Justin Garritt] inspired a lot of kids.”

Sophmore Justin Leombruno added, “[It’s] a nice welcome to the school.”

Transfer student Lynn Leblanc said, “[Convocation was] loquacious, but motivational.

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