August 20, 2025
President Robert W. Iuliano
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
As Delivered.
Class of ’29—on behalf of our faculty, staff, and 33,000 alumni around the country and the world, a hearty welcome to Gettysburg College! We are thrilled to welcome you to a place that will be your home not just for the next four years but, if you are like most of our graduates, one that will be a touchstone for the rest of your life.
I recognize that you have a sea of emotions swirling through you right now—for many of you, your first day on campus, surrounded by people you don’t yet know but many of whom will be your life-long friends. About to say goodbye to your parents and loved ones as you begin this next, exciting, and transformative chapter in your life.
It’s a lot to take in. Please know that every member of your class is feeling exactly the same way. So, don’t be shy—reach out to the person across the hall, make a new friend, and take the first steps in making Gettysburg your home.
As Alfredo [Román Jordán ’26] just noted, we often don’t realize how consequential these first steps are until we look back and realize just how far we’ve come.
Okay, let me change gears just a little and invite you to imagine this picture with me.
It’s a hot August day on the savanna in East Africa. The view is familiar, one you’ve probably seen countless times in pictures and videos. Open grassland broken up by the occasional acacia tree. Animals grazing in the distance. Rocks of all shapes and sizes scattered on the ground.
Do you have this scene in mind?
The savanna I’m thinking about isn’t from today or yesterday but from a million or more years ago. And on this particular day, someone, perhaps a distant ancestor of ours, was walking on that savanna and taking in that view. It was undoubtedly a view quite familiar to that person—one they’d likely seen hundreds of times before.
But this day proved different from the ones that came before. On this day, the world changed in a subtle but profound way. On this day, our protagonist looked down and picked up one of the scattered rocks and asked: “Can this rock be something more than a rock? Can I shape it into something different, something that will better serve my and my community’s needs?”
Put another way, on this day, our protagonist may have asked two simple but provocative questions that changed the world: “What if?” and “Why not?”
Two questions that were a first step to the lives we lead today.
“What if I use one rock to chip away at a second, to shape it into something with a purposeful edge? Why not give it a try?” From this emerged a stone axe, a tool that would help improve everyday life. To us, sitting here in 2025, the shaped and sharpened tool may seem unremarkable and simple. But not to our protagonist, who found a new possibility on that hot August day. A possibility that had previously gone unexamined. A possibility borne of imagination and curiosity.
It may have been the first-ever fabricated tool. In its day, a truly high-tech invention.
I tell this story not to encourage you to make and use your own stone axe on campus—I see Campus Safety nodding in emphatic agreement. Rather, I think there is something in this story which, if you take it to heart, can profoundly shape your next four years, just as that rock was shaped into a more useful tool.
Let me go back to those two questions I imagined were asked: What if? Why not?
These are the type of questions that open the door to discovery and knowledge. They’re the first steps that—if you keep them in mind over the next four years—will help you get the most out of the extraordinary education we offer, and that will help you lead a truly consequential life.
Curiosity, imagination, and a sense of wonder are foundational to any effective learning. Each and every one of us came to today’s Convocation with a set of assumptions about ourselves and the world. It is true for me. It is true for you. Assumptions formed by the experiences of our lifetimes and the communities in which we’ve lived.
There is nothing remarkable or concerning about this; it’s completely natural. Yet, as you begin your collegiate career, recognize that those assumptions can also serve as blinders do on horses—they can limit what we see and how we understand what’s around us.
So, as you sit here on your first day in college, consider asking yourself how you want to shape your future and yourself during your time here.
The path to that transformation asks that you be open. That you be curious. That you question your assumptions. So, as you navigate the years ahead, find moments to reflect on the same questions asked on the savanna on that pivotal day: “What if I don’t accept the status quo as a given? Why not try to make things better for my community?”
In many ways, these questions come naturally to us. I spent time over the summer with my six-year-old grandson, Leo. He must have begun half of his sentences with the word “why.”
“Why is there mist on the river?”
“Why,” he asked after seeing the sharks in the Atlanta aquarium, “are there predators?”
And, yes, “Why do I need to go to bed now?”
Maybe you remember this from your own childhood or from watching a younger sibling grow up. Something happens as we get older that causes us to stop asking those “why” and “what if” questions quite so regularly. We settle into patterns, we make assumptions, we accept much of what’s before us as a given. In our search for answers, we can find ourselves accepting the wrong ones, in part because we didn’t ask the right questions.
I suspect all this helps us navigate a world that grows in complexity as we get older; we look for, maybe even need, some shortcuts. And, yet, as you ready yourself for your collegiate career, try to rekindle the sense of wonder and curiosity you had as a six-year-old.
All those why questions may have at times driven your loved ones to distraction—and trust me, they did—but they are powerful learning tools.
Also recognize that the journey you’re beginning today isn’t one you are travelling alone. You needn’t answer the “What if?” and “Why not?” questions by yourself. Get to know our faculty, our coaches, your Personal Advising Teams in the Guided Pathways; they will be skillful and enthusiastic guides for your journey ahead.
So too will your fellow students. Today, you have joined a community that I imagine is unlike any in which you have previously lived. Your fellow classmates come from 31 states across the country. They come from 27 countries around the world. They have a broad range of passions—music, volleyball, politics, video games, and so much more. They have lived a life that has been different than yours, and they bring to the campus a range of experiences, perspectives, and beliefs that won’t always or perhaps even often align with yours.
Embrace those differences. Just as our protagonist picked up an ordinary rock and by changing perspective saw something more than a rock, your classmates can help you change the angle of your perspective. Maybe it’s a new way to approach a lab experiment. Maybe it’s a late-night conversation about a vexing societal problem. Or maybe it’s a different approach to a conflict you might be having with a roommate or a friend.
This leads to my final point this afternoon. An education is not a solitary pursuit. Yes, there will be times where you might need to hide away in the library finishing that paper due tomorrow. But you have joined an academic community—with an emphasis on the word community.
We learn from each other. We rely on one another. Each one of us profoundly influences the experiences of other members of the community. There’s something powerful about a healthy and supportive community—it strengthens all of us and helps all of us achieve our goals.
But being part of any community—and especially an academic community like ours—also carries with it important responsibilities. A healthy community doesn’t simply appear. It takes work. Attention to how we treat one another. Attention to how we disagree, because we will and should disagree. We don’t, won’t, and shouldn’t see the world in the same way. Those differences aren’t a reason for discord; they are a strength of a vibrant learning community, an invitation to learn from one another, an opportunity to understand the world, ourselves, and our values more fully.
So, seek out those differences with the curiosity of our protagonist on the savanna. Seek them out in the spirit of your six-year-old self. Ask those “What if?” and “Why not?” questions. And take seriously that you are now part of this special community and have a vital voice, together with a vital responsibility to respect and nurture the voices of others.
Again, on behalf of our faculty, staff, and alumni, I extend a hearty welcome to Gettysburg College. Make friends, put yourself out there, and take some intellectual risks. Pick up those metaphorical rocks and ask what if and why not. You are beginning one of the most remarkable chapters in your life. Take it all in.
Thank you.