Gail Sweezey Admissions

Gail Sweezey
Director of Admissions

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Good afternoon.  My name is Gail Sweezey, Director of Admissions and I am delighted to welcome the Class of 2013 and other new students to Gettysburg College.   This morning, as I was watching 744 of you arrive at Gettysburg, I was thinking about how remarkable all of you are.  You bring so many talents with you to the Gettysburg community and it is a true pleasure to have you here.

We carefully selected you from over 5400 applications.  Your class comes from 29 states and 11 foreign countries and it is clear from your applications that you represent the best of your high school graduating classes.  Here are some highlights of who you are and the interesting talent in this class.

Some of you have already taken college level courses; you have been recognized as a  National Merit Scholar and an AP Scholar; you have received a Presidential Award for Academic Excellence;  you have been named an All-American for excellence in academics and athletics.  You have been leaders in several national Honor societies.  You conducted research at the National Cancer Institute and you are fluent in three languages.  You are a first-chair violinist for the Baltimore Youth Symphony, you co-authored a paper on fluid dynamics and you are an ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.    You are a published poet, a filmmaker, a glider pilot, an opera singer and a wooden boat builder.  To quote one teacher "you are inquisitive and highly engaging"

You have also made a difference through service to others. 

You are the founder of Global Cause, a student group dedicated toward improving the quality of life for children in Africa, and you helped with

Katrina Relief work by building houses in New Orleans.   You are a

volunteer firefighter, and an EMT.  You raise Seeing Eye dogs.  You volunteered for a medical mission in Ethiopia with the World Surgical Foundation, and you started a non-profit organization to prevent littering in New York City subways.   You were the student representative to the school board, a peer mediator and a peer tutor.   You received the Presidential Community Service Award.

"You are", to quote one teacher, "a leader by example".   You taught English to children in rural India, completed the New York City Marathon and performed with an Israeli Dance Troupe.   You served on the Potomac Watershed Committee, and performed in an opera in Belgium .   You served as a People-to-People Ambassador to China, coached basketball for the Special Olympics and cared for turtles at a sanctuary in the Caribbean.   You have edited your school newspaper. You were the student body president.    You had the lead in your school theatre productions, qualified for the Jr. Olympics in Fencing and you earned a second-degree black belt in Karate.  The list is remarkable and endless.

You are an extraordinary group of students!  And we expect you to do great work as you contribute in positive ways to this academic community. 

Now it is time for me to pass you on to the faculty and to Jay White, Provost of Gettysburg College.    Provost White, can you please stand so that I may present the class?

And will the Class of 2013 and other new students please stand and remain standing until the conclusion of the statements that the provost and I are about to make.

With confidence and hope, the admissions office presents to the faculty the Class of 2013 and other new students.  We have confidence in their abilities, and we have high hopes for their achievement under your guidance.  We have carefully selected these students from nearly 5800 applicants.  They are individuals who are deserving of access to our rich educational resources and who are promising in their potential to make best use of this opportunity.  Their high school teachers have recommended them to us, praising their diligence, their eagerness, and their initiative.  To these young women and men, dedicated teachers provided initial forms of intellectual direction.  Now we commend these students to you, knowing that your teaching  will intensify the challenges of learning to which they have been introduced, and that your guidance and support will enable them to meet these new challenges and will also make an enormous difference in their lives.