President Miller, along with other faculty and staff speakers, stressed the importance of global citizenship to the incoming Freshman class at the 2016 Convocation ceremony. Each of them addressed issues of identity and social activism as they relate to the Hamline community and beyond.

“I’ve been told that this year’s class is really engaged,” President Miller said in response to the enthusiastic applause that accompanied her opening speech.

She thanked and welcomed new staff, faculty and student leaders, saying that she loved “how our students present themselves in a way that shows they respect the office they hold and also the way in which they represent this institution.”

She went on to introduce Reverend Cindy M. Gregorson, head of the Hamline Board of Trustees, who spoke of the new school year.

“There’s something about this time of year… those blank notebooks, just calling to me, speaking of new beginnings, fresh possibilities, a story and a life waiting to be written. What will this year bring?” Gregorson said.

Gregorson ended her speech with advice about what to do with those blank notebooks, standing, in her metaphor, for the students’ new beginnings.

“Stories are being written that students could not even imagine when they first walked in these doors,” she said. “You just never know. So it’s September. Time to open those notebooks and see what this year will bring.”

This focus on being open to new experiences as well as perceptions continued with Professor Kenneth Fox’s definition of the global citizen.

“[Being a global citizen] means opening yourself up to understand the different lived experiences and standpoints of all whom you encounter, whether it’s on a train in Azerbaijan or in the food line at Anderson,” he said.

Another focus of Fox’s idea of global citizenship was identity.