Gettysburg College welcomed the Class of 2030 through Orientation traditions that connected students to campus, community, and history, from Move-In Day and Convocation to the First-Year Walk. Students were encouraged to explore curiosity, exploration, service, and meaningful engagement throughout their Gettysburg journey.
The first steps of a Gettysburg education can be measured in many ways.
For members of the Class of 2030, they took the form of boxes carried into residence halls, introductions to new roommates and neighbors, and an afternoon gathering beneath the portico of Pennsylvania Hall, where generations of Gettysburg students have marked the beginning of their own journeys.
They arrived on Wednesday, Aug. 19, from 33 countries and 27 states, bringing with them experiences already shaped by service, athletics, leadership, the arts, and work beyond the classroom. By the end of their first day, however, they were being challenged to think less about where they had come from and more about what they might discover together over the next four years.
“You are not beginning something today. You are joining something already in motion—long before you, and long after all of us,” Vice President for Enrollment and Educational Services Robert Schwartz ’92 told the class during Opening Convocation. “You have four autumns—roughly 1,400 days. They are not yours to keep. They’re yours to add to.”
Joining the journey
That invitation—to add something of their own to Gettysburg—echoed throughout the afternoon.
Student Senate President Jocelyn Duquette ’27, a history major from Gloucester Township, New Jersey, encouraged students not to arrive with every answer already in hand, but to permit themselves to change direction, ask questions, and pursue interests whose destinations might not yet be clear.
“Care enough to explore,” Duquette said. “Care enough to ask questions, try something new, and speak up when something matters to you. Care enough to keep going when your plans change. Care enough to show up for the people around you.”
Art and Art History Prof. Tina Gebhart similarly urged students to seek the unexpected connections—what she called “overlaps”—among their academic interests, experiences, and relationships. Those intersections, she told the class, can become sources of both discovery and growth.
“Overlaps are where the magic lives,” Gebhart said. “Find and cultivate these overlaps, in yourself and across your studies. Overlaps help you connect and understand others. Overlaps help you grow into the best version of yourself. Overlaps give you flexible options in the world.”
“You are not beginning something today. You are joining something already in motion—long before you, and long after all of us.”
– Vice President for Enrollment and Educational Services Robert Schwartz ’92
Gebhart also noted that within these overlaps are opportunities for growth and learning. Mistakes will happen, whether it’s a broken pot in a pottery course or a poorly written paragraph, but it’s the practice that leads to more positive outcomes in the future.
“We all mess up. It’s another overlap,” Gebhart noted. “It’s important to be willing to mess up. It’s important to mess up as practice. If you haven’t messed up, you’re not doing the practice towards real, meaningful success.”
President Bob Iuliano explained that those possibilities could be distilled into two closely related words: wonder and wander.
He encouraged students to approach their education with the curiosity and humility to consider ideas beyond their own experiences and to move freely across a liberal arts curriculum that might lead them toward interests they have yet to discover.
“A Gettysburg education encourages creativity, curiosity, adaptability and so much more—human characteristics that society will forever need,” Iuliano said. “All that is available to you if you’re open to it—if you wander with a sense of wonder.”
The afternoon concluded as members of the class turned those words into action. After formally matriculating and placing their Class of 2030 pins over their hearts, students processed through the center of Pennsylvania Hall and emerged down the stairs of the south side of the building, where faculty and members of the College community welcomed them.
Walking into history
One day later, this journey extended beyond campus.
The Class of 2030 gathered in Christ Chapel on Thursday, Aug. 20, before setting out on the First-Year Walk, a tradition rooted in the College’s unique connection to Gettysburg and to the events of November 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address.
On that fateful day 163 years ago, Gettysburg students walked alongside President Lincoln and community members to the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, honoring those who gave their lives for freedom at the Battle of Gettysburg.
“The First-Year Walk is an event with a truly festive component, as people from across the campus and the borough welcome you to Gettysburg,” Iuliano said. “But it is also an event that encourages us to pause, reflect, and appreciate the solemnity of the moment.”
The modern tradition grew from the idea of Lindsay Morlock ’04, who, as a student, developed a plan for first-year students to retrace those historic steps and reflect on the College’s place within the town.
From campus, the class moved through the borough and ultimately to the Gettysburg National Military Park, where the evening’s ceremony brought together voices from both the College and the community.
Senior Class President Omer Shamil ’27, a double major in mathematical economics and public policy from Pakistan, helped welcome the class to the battlefield, inviting students to consider the historic landscape surrounding them and the unfinished work that still gives meaning to Gettysburg.
“Gettysburg is not just a backdrop to your education. It is an essential part of it.”
– Gettysburg Mayor Alison Lintal
Gettysburg Mayor and Public Policy Prof. Alison Lintal then broadened that sense of place by welcoming students not merely as members of the College, but as residents of the town.
“Gettysburg is not just a backdrop to your education. It is an essential part of it,” Lintal said, encouraging students to learn beyond the classroom—in Lincoln Square, at community events, on battlefield trails, and through relationships with residents.
Her message was one of belonging, but also of responsibility.
“Welcome—not just to campus, but to this community,” Lintal said. “Get involved. Venture beyond campus. Get to know your neighbors. Give something back.”
That welcome became tangible when Lintal presented a symbolic key to the Borough of Gettysburg to Alessandro Araujo ’30 of Washington Heights, New York, a graduate of the Hotchkiss School, representing the Class of 2030.
The unfinished work
As the class gathered on the battlefield, the mood shifted from welcome to reflection.
Interdisciplinary Studies Chair Vernon Cisney then recited the Gettysburg Address and challenged students to consider the role education can play in preparing them for that work.
“You are now part of this historic, unfinished work, and you are here because you are up to the task.”
– Interdisciplinary Studies Chair Vernon Cisney
For Cisney, meaningful education is not simply the accumulation of facts. It is the discipline of learning how to listen, question, analyze, adapt, and engage perspectives beyond one’s own. Those habits, he argued, are essential in a complex and divided world.
“You are about to embark upon a journey of discovery that will help prepare you to step into that world with vision, imagination, and courage,” Cisney said. “You are now part of this historic, unfinished work, and you are here because you are up to the task.”
Finding their place
The traditions of Move-In Day, Convocation, and First-Year Walk provided only the beginning of Orientation. Throughout the week, Campus Life staff, Orientation leaders, resident assistants, faculty, staff, and fellow students continued to lead programs designed to introduce the Class of 2030 to campus resources, involvement opportunities, and one another.
On Friday, Aug. 21, students continued building connections with the surrounding community through GIV (Gettysburg is Volunteering) Day, during which first-year students provided support at nearby nonprofit organizations such as South Central Community Action Programs (SCCAP), Vida Charter School, Painted Turtle Farm, Campus Kitchen, and others.
Just a day later, Saturday, Aug. 22, first-year students represented their respective residence halls in a friendly and competitive field day on Memorial Field. Later that evening, four Gettysburg seniors took the stage at the Majestic Theater as part of Experience Gettysburg, sharing their own stories of hope, determination, and growth over the last four years.
Together, those experiences turn Orientation into more than an introduction to Gettysburg. They begin the process of transforming a group of students into a community—one invited to wonder, explore, and contribute its own chapter to a story already in motion.
By Corey Jewart
Photos by Alyssa Riegel, Luke Waldner, Tyler Caruso
Posted: 08/24/26