April 25, 2026
President Robert W. Iuliano
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
As Delivered.
Good morning, everyone. I hope you have enjoyed your brunch and the good company at your tables—I know I certainly have.
I also hope you have had the opportunity to take in our newly renovated Ballroom. A key objective was to have it up and running before this brunch. This place stores so many memories of alumni going back generations—dances, dinners, community meetings, and maybe even some first dates leading to a Gettysburg marriage.
It was time to create a new generation of memories in the context of an updated space—space that will permit us to do what we hope we’ve done today: effectively highlight the very good things our students and our community is doing!
We’re so pleased to gather together today to express our deep appreciation for the remarkable difference you make in the lives of our Gettysburg students through your scholarship and endowed fund support.
It’s especially appropriate to gather as our academic year comes to a close. It gives you all a fuller sense of all the remarkable things our students do here, both in and out of the classroom.
Now, the end of the academic year does tend to raise the stress level of our students a notch or two—here’s hoping this brunch gives them a well-deserved break!
In a very real sense, the work ahead for our students as the semester comes to a close encapsulates why this is one of my favorite events of the year—it helps underscore just how your remarkable generosity shapes the lives of our students. I’m confident that you’ve experienced that in your conversations this morning. And it was certainly on vivid display through our opening speaker.
Cassidy, thank you for your moving remarks and for sharing your story with all of us. You exemplify a Gettysburg education at its very best. Let’s give another big hand for Cassidy!
Events like these are uplifting for many reasons, but above all, they provide us with a unique forum to bring together our students with those who have so generously supported their academic pursuits here at Gettysburg—pursuits that will undoubtedly lead them closer to the consequential lives and careers they are working so hard to attain.
When I look around this room today, I am reminded of how personal and how meaningful your philanthropy truly is to our students’ Gettysburg stories.
Just take Ainsley Green. Where’s Ainsley seated today? Welcome!
Ainsley is a double major in music and English with a writing concentration. She is from Damascus, Maryland, just an hour and a half south of here.
During her college search, Ainsley wanted to find a school where she could combine her passions for storytelling and performance—and she found that rare combination at Gettysburg through our Sunderman Conservatory of Music.
And, like Cassidy, what really sold Ainsley on this place was Get Acquainted Day—and the caring community she found here. Faculty, staff, and alumni like you all deeply invested in her success as a student, but even more so, in her growth as a whole person.
Thanks to the generosity of Bob Busch, Class of ’56—who regrettably cannot be with us today—Ainsley is the proud recipient of the Robert H. Busch Endowed Music Scholarship. And because of this scholarship, she’s been able to take full advantage of her Gettysburg College education and participate in a wide range of campus activities.
As a talented pianist, she performs in multiple Sunderman Conservatory ensembles—from the Wind Symphony to the Bullets Marching Band.
She’s the president of the international music fraternity Sigma Alpha Iota, which connects Ainsley with other students who share her dedication to music and service.
She’s actively engaged in our new Guided Pathways program, advancing as part of the Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Pathway.
And she is a staff writer for the Arts and Entertainment section of our student newspaper, The Gettysburgian.
She has also served as an Orientation leader, a Reunion Weekend volunteer, an intern in our Communications & Marketing Office, and student worker within our Musselman Library.
It’s fair to say Ainsley stays busy! It’s something I admire about our students—how all-in they are—and something that alumni support helps make possible.
Looking ahead to graduation next year, Ainsley envisions a career in higher education—perhaps back here at Gettysburg, we hope—in teaching or admissions or library science.
When reflecting on her many activities at Gettysburg, Ainsley said it best, and I quote: “I know I’m going to love these things forever. Gettysburg has given me the tools to keep exploring—and the confidence to lead.”
Ainsley, thank you for your inspiring work. And, once again, a special thanks to Bob Busch for making this scholarship a reality.
In so many ways, Ainsley represents the promise of our students in the room today. These are the students you’re supporting!
You see, your generous gifts bring a Gettysburg College education within reach to talented students from across the country and around the world—students like Cassidy and Ainsley, and many others here today.
But I also want to underscore that your giving has likewise enriched how our students learn, discover, and grow every day.
For example, your funds support internships at our Musselman Library, awards presented at our Fall and Spring Honors Day, professional development for our faculty, our students’ research with the Cross-Disciplinary Science Institute, field experiences at our Civil War Institute, Sunderman Conservatory of Music student experiences, countless opportunities abroad, and so much more.
They make this transformative education we promise to our students come to life. And they help ready students to lead full and consequential lives—lives that have meaning, that improve the communities in which they live, and that stand as a shining beacon of what a Gettysburg education means.
On behalf of our entire Gettysburg College community, let me offer you a hearty thank you for your scholarship and endowed fund support—and for all you do in service of our students every day.
It matters to our students and the people they will ultimately become.
It matters to our community and the intellectual, creative, and social life we’re fostering here.
And it matters because it helps make Gettysburg College the special place that it is.
Thank you.