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St. Olaf College began the 2025-26 academic year with an opening convocation that blended tradition and forward-looking purpose, inviting students to ground their time on the Hill in shared values, intellectual excellence, and care for one another. 

Faculty processed into Boe Memorial Chapel in their academic regalia, accompanied by music from the St. Olaf Band, conducted by Assistant Professor of Music Henry Dorn. The ceremony itself opened with an invocation from College Pastor Matthew Marohl.

“We [gather] with gratitude for the dedication and creativity of our faculty, for the care and commitment of our staff, for roommates and classmates and teammates, for conductors and coaches, for buildings and green spaces, for all that makes this place our place,” Marohl said, concluding with a petition that the entire community be granted “courage when we are anxious, grace as we grow, and joy in our journey.”

President Susan Rundell Singer then welcomed the Class of 2029 and transfer students, describing opening convocation as a beautiful mix of “the pageantry of the past and the promise of the future.”

She went on to outline the college’s mission for the new Oles. 

“Nourished by our Lutheran heritage, we are committed to caring for our neighbor and living on purpose for the common good,” Rundell Singer said. “The through thread across our first 150 years at St. Olaf is that we are solution seekers committed to moving forward, finding joy, and making a difference in the world.” 

This year’s work will be guided by the Core Four values — curiosity, belonging, courage, and grace — and a commitment to allow each to inform and expand upon the others. 

“May you find the courage, and grant each other the grace, to truly seek to understand,” Rundell Singer advised. “Together, we’ll find the solutions we seek.”

Student Government Association President Fiona Mundy ’26 urged students to help shape the community they want to inhabit. 

“Leadership is not just about reacting to problems as they come up,” she said. “It’s about shaping the kind of community we all want to be a part of.” 

Mundy encouraged the first-years to center a “vision” aligned with their deepest values:

“A vision is more all-encompassing than plain old goals. Your values guide how you see the world, and define what makes you unique.”

Living those values, she added, requires daily practice. Mundy invited students to bring that vision to fruition through classes, research, the arts, athletics, and any of the college’s hundreds of organizations. 

“Life is about being in the world as a living representation of your values, and each experience is a chance to practice and live them out,” she said. 

Mundy closed with an appeal to meet others with generosity of spirit. Citing the concept of “unconditional positive regard” — which rests on the belief that every single person is doing the best that they can — she maintained that by treating each other in that way, the campus will enjoy “an environment so much more ready for personal growth and community.”

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Tarshia Stanley, also newly arrived on the Hill, framed her remarks as “the first commencement.”

“To commence is to begin,” she said. “Today is the day to take stock. This is the beginning of your journey.”

Quoting the Association of American Colleges and Universities, she described a liberal arts education as an approach to learning that empowers individuals, and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. Stanley also took to the liberty of supplementing the definition:

“I would remind us that you learn not only analytical skills, but creative problem solving,” she said. “A liberal arts education is designed to help you examine things so you can figure out what does not work and how to make it better. It also enables you to ask the kind of questions that construct, that build and repair.”

College is real-world preparation, Stanley declared, and she urged students to take advantage of all of the opportunities afforded to them, from lab research to internships and the arts. 

“You are adulting in college […] the difference […] is that while you are here, you have a tailor-made support system,” Stanly said. “Every one of us believed in you long before we ever met you in person. Give it everything you’ve got — so that you get the best result. Try out for the play and participate in the internship — so that you get the best result. Take the time to fall, so that when you get back up — you get the best result.”

She then widened the lens from the outlook of the next four years, to that of a post-graduate vista.

“A St. Olaf education is designed to serve both your imagination and your soul,” Stanley shared. “As a result of your study here, you will be an intellectual citizen and a human advocate capable of great wisdom, vision, and empathy.”

Stanley pivoted from the promise of a St. Olaf education to a reminder of the duty that comes with it.

“Never forget that these days are precious, and that the opportunity to be educated does not come to everyone,” she said. “Neither of my parents finished high school. I’m the first person in my family to graduate from college. I had wonderful community members step into my life, who passed on to me not just a love of learning, but the responsibility of intellectual excellence — to live up to my very best. Today, you are being called to intellectual excellence. We need you.”

After issuing her final charge, Stanley concluded: 

“Get started. Commence.” 

Watch the full Opening Convocation below.