News Detail

First-Year Walk Video Available

09/10/2007

A video  that chronicles the Class of 2011's First-Year Walk is now available along with video and a photo gallery of other orientation activites.

Click here for a video of the First-Year Walk (full version).

Click here for a video of Field Day. 

 

Click here for a video of Opening Day.

Click here for an online photo gallery.

The First-Year Walk looks back to Nov. 19, 1863, when Gettysburg College students, townspeople and Abraham Lincoln processed along Baltimore Street to the National Cemetery site, where the president dedicated the Soldiers' National Cemetery and delivered his Gettysburg Address. Students and facilitators met at Christ Chapel at 6:45 p.m. The group traveled east on Stevens Street, turned right onto Carlisle Street, continued around the left side of the square, and traveled down Baltimore Street. The walk culminated at the cemetery where Scott Hancock, Professor of History and Africana Studies at Gettysburg College, read the Gettysburg Address and presented the class with its flag. Other speakers included Gettysburg Mayor William Troxell and President Will.

While en route to the cemetery, Orientation group leaders and volunteer facilitators familiarizeed first-year students with downtown businesses and historic landmarks, such as Thaddeus Stevens Hall, named after the abolitionist congressman and College co-founder who authored the 14th Amendment; the Eisenhower House, where the retired president and College trustee wrote his memoirs; the Wills House, where Lincoln stayed the night before his Address; and the Jenny Wade House, where the battle's only civilian casualty was felled by a stray bullet.