Speeches and Articles

Remarks as delivered by
John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown University
New Student Orientation Academic Convocation
Sunday, August 27, 2006
McDonough Arena
 

For more than two centuries, every Fall, Georgetown University has gathered together some of the world’s most promising young people and welcomed them into this community.  We gather here on this day, the 27^th of August, 2006, to welcome you.  From today forward, our tradition is yours.  Your goals and dreams are ours. 

It is a special moment when you enter Healy Gate. 

For new students, there is a pride and a profound sense of achievement.  You have worked hard to get here.  And there is perhaps another feeling, one a bit more difficult to identify…a mixture of excitement and anxiety. 

For parents, this is a proud day that has been a long time in coming.  It was not so long ago that you were bringing your child into your home for the first time.  Or introducing your child to their first books…this summer my five year old son, JT, read the Sandra Boynton classic, Blue Hat, Green Hat, on his own, for the first time.  It was unbelievable.  Perhaps you were providing a steadying hand on a bicycle without training wheels.  We know these days can be filled with mixed emotions, and lots of memories come flowing back.  On behalf of our faculty and our administration, we are honored that you have placed your sons and daughters in our care.  We are privileged to welcome you into the Georgetown family. 

The defining characteristic of a university is the pursuit of truth.  We engage in this pursuit through an immersion in the realm of ideas…in the exercise of our intellect.  These women and men seated behind me love what they do.  They explore the world of ideas and are here to share their discoveries with you.  They venture into this realm every day and are filled with a generosity of spirit.  They could be doing many things, but they take a stand here, at this university, with you.  They know the kind of promise and potential you carry.  They know what kind of difference you can make in the world.  They are here to play a role in your formation. 

Immersion in the world of ideas…a commitment to academic excellence…is the first characteristic of this university.  Immersion in other experiences complements what happens in our classrooms and our laboratories and our libraries.  You no doubt have seen the banners that fill our campus this opening weekend, capturing the full dimensions of the tradition that has animated this university community for 217 years.   

As our nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit University, we seek to ensure your full development and terms like: Education the Whole Person and Cura Personalis capture two aspects of this tradition. 

We seek to provide you with opportunities here that will immerse you in activities:  in service to the community of Washington, in study abroad, in programs in the performing arts, in intramural and intercollegiate athletics, in countless clubs and organizations – so that we provide this set of experiences and you are able to feel this tradition come alive. So that you can feel this Spirit that animates this place. 

Yet an immersion is just stimuli unless you can appropriate it into your own imagination.  The act of appropriation allows you to make meaning out of these experiences.  One of the values that defines the Spirit of Georgetown is the idea of Contemplation in Action, acknowledging the importance of the reflectiveness that must accompany the experience of immersion that will define your lives here over these next four years.  And here, these same women and men sitting here behind me, as well as the members of our Jesuit community and our chaplains in Campus Ministry, our coaches, our staff, our folks in the residence halls and in student life … they’re all here to help you in this process of making meaning. 

Perhaps the most important skill that you can develop in these years ahead is your imagination.  We seek to share with you the world of ideas and the richness of our tradition.  We seek to expose you to some of the most insightful minds and people of influence in the world today.  We want you to experience this city and to never be afraid of the forces that shape the direction of our world today.  We do this because we believe our world needs people who will be shaped by the kind of experiences you will have here over these next four years. 

Two other aspects of the Spirit of this community call for the engagement of our imaginations. 

“Faith and Justice”:  We pursue truth that leads to justice.  Injustice calls out to us from every corner of the world, and it reminds us that justice depends on us to learn, to ask, to reflect, to act, to imagine. 

And to be “Women and Men for Others”:  To recognize the responsibility we have to be in solidarity with the poor, with those less fortunate, with the vulnerable and the dispossessed. 

I’d like to ask you to take a moment now to engage your imaginations…to take part in an imaginative exercise very much in the tradition of this university.  The spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, were exercises of the imagination. 

[THREE-MINUTE IGNATIAN EXERCISE OF THE IMAGINATION, USING AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION] 

You are living a dream far beyond the imagination of most human beings.  You have a privileged place in the world…a beautiful world…yet a world beset by injustice, a world in desperate need of your dreams.  What you do with this privilege matters. 

Can you imagine a world where others can enjoy this privilege, a world where everyone can make the most of their talents and abilities, a world where children can go to sleep at night without knowing violence or hunger?  Can you imagine a word in which all of us, regardless of our country of origin, or religious conviction, or color of our skin, or our gender – that regardless of our differences, we can build this earth into a Kingdom of Love? 

There is nothing quite like this moment.  This is a special time in your lives.  This is your time. 

We are privileged to share this adventure with you, and excited about the part we will play.  We are humbled by the trust placed in us by your parents and loved ones. And we are hopeful for the lives you will touch, for the justice you will deliver, and for the contributions you will make to the world in which we live. 

Welcome to Georgetown.