Following a record-breaking 74,000 applications for this year’s freshman class, 8,500 first-year students and 1,200 transfer students entered the Kohl Center for University of Wisconsin-Madison Convocation Tuesday afternoon.
50 countries and all 50 states — as well as Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. — are represented in the class, breaking another record. The freshman class also “includes more students who are part of the first generation in their family to go to college” than ever before, Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said.
Despite the large size of the incoming class, Mnookin and student speaker Heewone Lim reminded the crowd they deserve to be here and belong at UW-Madison.
“You have earned your place at UW-Madison, and nothing about that is an accident,” Lim, a senior and the daughter of two Korean immigrants said.
She reminisced on how joining a film club her first semester led her to develop a passion for a topic she previously knew little about. Showing up to events she might not have usually attended led to her building a support system. “Without these programs and these people here at our school, I wouldn’t be standing before you today,” Lim told the crowd.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Lori Reesor, likened the incoming class to an orchestra.
“Your unique perspectives are exactly what this university needs to create something beautiful and meaningful,” she said. “Though you may feel like a small instrument in this vast ensemble, remember that every single note can resonate.”
She also reminded students that their voices matter at UW-Madison.
“There will be times when you feel out of rhythm or unsure if your voice belongs,” Reesor said, “and I’m here to assure you that it does, and you’re not in this alone.”
Professor Percival Matthews, an associate dean and Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education, encouraged students to interact with the content they learn in class.
“You learn from engaging your curiosity and embracing and engaging people around you,” he said. “You learn from pushing, tugging, shifting and seeing the world from different perspectives and vantage points.”
Chancellor Mnookin closed out the event by emphasizing the importance of pluralism and “bringing together of people with multiple different backgrounds, identities and points of view,” both at UW-Madison and around the world.
“You will learn from each other, both from those similar to you, and equally, you will learn from your differences,” she said. “Learning from one another will enrich you, and it will also connect you to one another and to the broader world.”
