Convocation

These are some pictures from convocation, the ceremony that is the official start to the school year.  Convocation happens the evening of the first day of class.  The whole school community is required to attend, students in dressy clothes and faculty and staff in their academic regalia.  A guest speaker gives a short speech, the chancellor welcomes the students back, and the president of the student body makes a speech.  And after all the formal stuff, there are cookies and lemonade served on the Bryan Lawn.  Our guest speaker this year was Dr. Kenneth Gibbs, NCSSM class of 2001, who is currently Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He gave some wonderful advice to the students about how to make the best of their time here and some things he wished he had known when he was at NCSSM.  To hear his speech or watch the whole ceremony, check out this link: http://new.livestream.com/ncssmlivestream/events/1014220.