MURFREESBORO — Hundreds
of incoming MTSU freshmen and their families gathered inside Murphy Center
Sunday afternoon to be formally welcomed into the Blue Raider family during the
annual Convocation ceremony.
Speaker R. Dwayne Betts challenged the new students gathered
in Hale Arena to “hold tenaciously on to a dream that will carry you when
things are difficult.”
Betts, an author, poet, essayist and national spokesman for
the Campaign for Youth Justice, wrote the memoir, “A Question of Freedom: A
Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison.” His book was
selected as the 2013 Summer Reading Selection for MTSU and Rutherford County.
“You’re going to college and part of you says you’ve already
made it,” he told students Sunday. “But I wonder what part of you is willing to
have a dream that makes absolutely no sense right now. Because those are the
dreams that change the world.”
University Convocation formally welcomes new freshmen into
the MTSU learning community. Faculty members marched in their regalia as the
MTSU Band of Blue performed, and the traditions and rituals of the university
were explained to the newest members of the MTSU family.
“This day also marks the beginning of many significant new
relationships for you as new entering students,” MTSU President Sidney A.
McPhee said. “You’ll meet individuals who will literally change your lives.”
In his book, Betts chronicles his experience after picking
up a pistol for the first time as a 16-year-old honors student and carjacking
and robbing a stranger. He spent nine years in prison and emerged to become a
bookstore manager, establish book clubs for African-American boys and earn a
bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.
“While I was in prison I had this dream of being a writer,
but the dream was totally self-centered. The dream was about how I could prove
to the world that I was different,” he said Sunday. “I didn’t get the
opportunity to actually be a writer until I was under the most intense pressure
of my life as a college student.”
Betts also urged the students to be avid readers, telling
them “my preparation for college consisted solely of reading. Reading is
fundamental.”
Freshman Keith Hollingsworth, a mathematical sciences major,
was among students who had read Betts’ book over the summer. Hollingsworth,
whose parents are living in Italy on military assignment but whose grandparents
live in nearby Mt. Juliet, came from his new dorm room in Lyon Hall to hear
Betts’ remarks.
“I thought it was very inspiring,” Hollingsworth said of the
book. “It just makes me believe that if I work hard enough I can get anywhere I
want to be. It was a really good story.”
Freshman Mahkayla Grogan of Memphis arrived carrying a copy
of Betts’ book, excited to hear his remarks and also holding hopes of getting
her book signed by the author afterward. She too was inspired by Betts’ story
of redemption.
“He learned through prison how (his mind) wasn’t right,”
Grogan said. “I enjoyed reading it very much.”
In his welcoming remarks, Scott Boyd, MTSU theater professor
and president of the Faculty Senate, told the new students that MTSU offered a
fertile ground for developing them as students and individuals.
“Tomorrow morning, the next chapter of your life truly
begins,” he said, noting Monday’s start of classes for most students. “You’re
exploration for growth, for knowledge, for achievement, starts down a new an
exciting path that will take you places you have only dreamt about … There will
also be a lot of hard, roll- up-your-sleeves type work.”
Incoming student body president James Lee of Clarksville,
Tenn., led the crowd in the reading of the "True Blue Pledge," which
reaffirms the values of the university.
Following Convocation, the annual President’s Picnic was
held in the Walnut Grove at the center of campus between the Cope
Administration Building and Peck Hall, to celebrate the new academic year.
Both events were part of MTSU’s annual “Week of Welcome”
celebration, which continues through Sept. 6. For a complete “Week of Welcome”
schedule, visit www.mtsu.edu/nsfp/welcome_nsfp.php .
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