{"id":114852,"date":"2019-08-22T17:01:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T23:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=114852"},"modified":"2019-09-14T12:34:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T18:34:22","slug":"convocation-ceremony-champions-students-visions-for-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=114852","title":{"rendered":"Convocation ceremony champions students\u2019 visions for the future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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During the Convocation ceremony, students were encouraged to write their hopes and dreams for the future on “dream cards”, which they then plastered on large UCCS letter cutouts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Campus leaders welcomed the newest members of the UCCS community at the annual convocation ceremony August 22.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nearly 1,800 first-year students marked the beginning of their undergraduate degree journey at the program \u2013 so many that Chancellor Venkat Reddy addressed students in Gallogly Event Center and Provost Tom Christensen addressed those in Berger Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a change of plans from last year, students attended the convocation\u00a0ceremony in the morning before walking to their\u00a0Gateway Program Seminar class, a required course for first-year students at UCCS.<\/span><\/p>\n

In their remarks, Chancellor Reddy and Provost Christensen\u00a0<\/span>shared memories of the start of their own academic journeys and advised students that they would find success by creating community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chancellor Reddy’s remarks directed students to focus on building community and getting engaged with campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI want you to know that I did not succeed in earning my master\u2019s\u00a0degree, or my doctorate degree, at Penn State\u00a0alone,\u201d\u00a0Reddy said as he reflected on moving from India to the United States in pursuit of higher education. \u201cI leaned on my family.\u00a0I leaned on my friends.\u00a0I did not forget my community at home in India. Instead, I kept them with me, and I also created a new community to support me here in the United States. Their strength gave me strength, and that helped me succeed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to\u00a0be successful in any of my degree programs, I had to find and create a community<\/span>,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Christensen remarked. \u201cA community that\u00a0believed in me \u2013 but also helped me to believe in myself and my potential to do\u00a0<\/span>great things<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>So<\/span>\u00a0know that\u00a0in many ways,\u00a0I see myself in\u00a0all of\u00a0you. And know that there is a community here that believes in you already<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Provost Tom Christensen reminded students to branch out and get to know people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both Reddy and Christensen encouraged students to introduce themselves to the people sitting next to them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reddy stated that as first-year students began to branch out on campus, they would find \u201cplenty of people who are very similar to you, and plenty of people who seem vastly different<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“<\/span>Each of them will contribute to your growth as a person<\/span>,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0he said. \u201cThey will teach you how to see the world from a perspective that is\u00a0very different\u00a0from your own<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reddy and Christensen encouraged students to focus on a vision for their future success. Each first-year student used markers and highlighters to write their dreams for the future on stickers, which they placed on large cut-outs of letters spelling \u201cUCCS\u201d on their way to class.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, you\u00a0are in charge of\u00a0creating your own destiny<\/span>,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Reddy said. \u201c<\/span>Everyone on this campus is committed to your success.\u00a0<\/span>And everyone on this campus believes in\u00a0<\/span>you, and<\/span>\u00a0believes in the vision that\u00a0you\u00a0have for your future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>We are here with you every step of the way, cheering you on<\/span>,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0he said. \u201cAnd on your graduation day, we will be looking back in awe of how far you have come.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Convocation also included an official welcome from the Student Government Association President JayJay Porcadilla and Vice President Philip Oke-Thomas. The two led the new students in the\u00a0UCCS Creed<\/a>, which outlines collective values for all students.<\/p>\n

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Students packed Gallogly Event Center to hear remarks from Vice Chancellor for Student Success Sentwali Bakari and Chancellor Venkat Reddy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Student Government Association President JayJay Porcadilla led students in reciting the UCCS Student Creed, a statement of collective values for all UCCS students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Faculty and staff cheered students on with pom-poms and noisemakers as they headed to their GPS classes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Students’ dreams for the future included everything from joining the FBI and becoming a biomedical engineer to owning a house and owning a dog (or four).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Chancellor Venkat Reddy and Provost Tom Christensen encouraged students to focus on a vision for their future success. \u201cUltimately, you\u00a0are in charge of\u00a0creating your own destiny,\u201d\u00a0Chancellor Reddy said. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":114909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,49],"tags":[53,62,63,60],"class_list":["post-114852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-campus-announcements","tag-academic-affairs","tag-chancellors-office","tag-student-life","tag-student-success"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_4001.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-tSs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114852"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114940,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114852\/revisions\/114940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}