Today is a wonderful day of celebration as you, the members of the Class of 2029 and other new students, take your place here at Kenyon for the first time. This is a really special moment — take a minute to savor it. I am excited to welcome you to this beautiful campus and to this unique community.
Many of you have come from a world away to get here. Maybe you’re used to the fast pace of a major city or you hail from a country halfway around the globe. But you all have at least one thing in common: You are willing to go the distance for something truly special. Think about this: The average American student who chooses a private college like Kenyon goes to a college that is 100 miles away from home. For the average student in the Class of 2029 here at Kenyon? It’s 865 miles. And you’ve all come for a reason: to join a community unlike any other in the world.
I know exactly how it feels to make that decision. I chose to come to Gambier after living in places that couldn’t be more different: New York City, and, before that, Miami, Boston and Philadelphia. But I couldn’t be happier. I especially treasure my daily walks down Middle Path with our family’s miniature poodle, Milo, who looks forward to meeting all of you. Sorry that he couldn’t be here right now. And I love running into you all: students, my wonderful faculty, peers, and members of our staff from all divisions across the campus. There’s an intimacy and a familiarity to this community that is singular and truly wonderful.
It’s invigorating to live in a place like this. Here you are surrounded by others who have chosen to dedicate themselves to exploring the unknown, expanding boundaries and pursuing understanding — together. Each day, you will be exposed to new and different ways of thinking, challenged in a thousand unexpected and beautiful ways — and you’ll work with some brilliant minds to overcome them. That’s exactly what attracted so many of us here, and that is what will make the next four years for you unforgettable. Make the most of them.
There’s this feeling that anything can happen here. Because it can — and it does, all the time. I’ll share with you one example: How many of you last year saw the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” starring Timothée Chalamet? I see a few parents raising their hands — nicely done. One of our alums, Jay Cocks, from the Class of 1966, co-wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for it. It wasn’t his first high-profile screenplay — he’s a regular collaborator with people like Martin Scorsese — but Cocks did have some unique insights into Dylan from his time here as a student. Because, you see, back in 1964, when Cocks was a sophomore and Dylan was a rising folk star, the two spent the day together here in Knox County when Dylan came to perform in Rosse Hall, just up the hill. It was a day that changed Cocks’ life. He wrote about that day for the Collegian, and that kickstarted a career for him in the media, where he worked at Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone as a film critic before he transitioned into screenwriting. To him, Kenyon was — and I’m happy to say, it remains — a place full of possibilities where you could “make your own world. … There aren’t enough good movies around? OK, here’s the Kenyon Film Society. No film festivals? Start one. Crummy music? Bring Bob Dylan and Nina Simone to campus.”
I think that you will find that there are a lot of things that make Kenyon special. But when I ask students and alumni when I travel around the country what is the thing they value most about their Kenyon experience, the No. 1 response is people — their friends, their faculty, their coaches, the staff, their peers. Look around you at our esteemed faculty. They are all experts in their chosen fields who are also dedicated mentors devoted to student success. I know many who have opened their homes to students, offering tea and cookies to go with good conversation, and who continue to collaborate with their students even after graduation. It’s true of our staff, too, who also take a holistic approach to helping you succeed here. From the advisors in the Career Development Office to the dedicated staff at Student Affairs to the medical professionals at our Cox Health and Counseling Center, they all work together to help you thrive — personally, professionally and academically.
Then, of course, there are your classmates. You may be strangers now, but, trust me, that will not last long. You will find your people here. They might be your roommate or your lab partner. You may find them sitting next to you during a concert at Rosse Hall or tossing a Frisbee on the South Quad. But trust me, you will find them. And once you do, you will never lose them, because a Kenyon friend is a friend for life.
But these relationships won’t happen by magic. Just like your work in the classroom, these connections come with responsibility and they take work. As you prepare for a world full of complexities, I encourage you to ask questions, but don’t expect the answers you already have. Engage in conversations — not for the purpose of changing someone’s mind, but for understanding their perspective. Most of you probably have never been in a place like this before — here in Central Ohio with people from all over the world. Take advantage of that. Meet your neighbors, both here on campus and in the community in Knox County that surrounds us. Test out a career through a local internship. Volunteer at a nearby school or not-for-profit. Take a class, one of our community-engaged learning classes, that gets you out into Knox County. Visit a Mount Vernon coffee shop. Check out a local festival.
As the newest additions to this community, I know that you’ll fit in. After all, in many ways, as we’ve already heard, you represent the best of what we’re all about. You are spirited and curious. You enjoy stretching yourself in the classroom, on athletics fields, on stages, and in concert halls. I promise you that these qualities will only grow and deepen during your time here in Gambier. Our vision, our methods here, have certainly adapted over the years — more than 200 and counting — but the end goal of a Kenyon liberal arts education has always been the same: to build strong foundations for lives of purpose and consequence.
This is a place where our differences are our strengths. It’s a place where you will learn to collaborate across disciplines, both formally as part of your academic requirements and informally through your extracurricular activities. You will develop your ability to think critically and synthesize complicated information, not only in service to the goal of building a better world, but also in service of finding your place in that world.
In choosing a liberal arts education, you have chosen a path that will prepare you to become the kind of engaged citizen that this world needs. Kenyon is and has always been committed to making a better world by cultivating curiosity, adaptability, ethical judgement, courage and humility — all essential skills in a rapidly changing world. And you will treasure those skills long after you leave here. Again, when I meet alumni who are doing incredible things in the world — in business, in policy, in the arts — they are proud advocates for this liberal arts education. They believe it prepared them for the life they lead now.
My personal goal for each and every one of you is to leave here ready to be a difference maker in the world around us. That’s because a liberal arts education — excuse me, a Kenyon liberal arts education — is not just designed to broaden your intellectual horizons. It’s also built to hone an agile mind. It will increase your capacity to work with others to make an impact in the world around you, making sense of all its rough edges — and then do something about it. I know this from my own background in public health. As an educator and epidemiologist, I can tell you that any significant advances you see come from people collaborating, from working together, not from the efforts of a single individual. So what you learn here will do more than prepare you for your first job; it will equip you for a lifetime of meaningful and consequential work.
And that work begins today, so get ready. When you moved into your new campus residence with some of your favorite things from home — clothes, sheets, headphones, I saw a couple boxes full of vinyl — give me a shout if you’ve got some good ’80s hits in there — I hope that you also packed your creativity, your inquisitiveness, your empathy and your determination. All of these traits will serve you well as you continue to grow here as students, leaders and human beings.
Now is your chance to take that first step, putting you and your unique talents to great use in forging new paths. I am so delighted that you made the choice to be here. You are an essential part of this community, and I can’t wait to see all that you will become. I look forward to seeing you on Middle Path. Congratulations!