UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 1, Page 2
September 5, 1996
Students are the focus in Convocation ceremony

     Staci A. Ward, president of the Delaware Undergraduate Student
Congress (DUSC), welcomed members of the Class of 2000 to campus
Tuesday as part of New Student Convocation. Ward, a senior, majoring
in marketing, told students that things may seem overwhelming in the
beginning, but that getting involved in one of the University's 160
student organizations can make the University "seem a lot smaller."
     Ward compared people to jigsaw puzzles, saying, "With the lesson
of each new experience, a person molds and shades a new piece of their
puzzle.
     "Each piece is a shade and shape [that reflects] what you have
gained and become as an individual. In the end, the colors of your
puzzle and the shapes of your pieces [reflect] carefully...the lessons
of experience and new-found knowledge to fit together as a finished
product.
     "The University offers a myriad of rainbow colors waiting for you
to experience," he said. "When you are shading the puzzle pieces of
yourself during your years here, I can assure you that your puzzle
will become a masterpiece by getting involved in student
organizations."
      She also presented the Class of 2000's class flag to Jacy C.
Ippolito, an English major from Lewes. He said the flag "not only
represents the changing of the millennia, but will also come to
represent our determination and our accomplishments as a class.
     "Like many of you," he said, "I am very excited about being here
today. I'm thrilled to be living on my own and finally taking classes
that I've chosen without my high school guidance counselor looking
over my shoulder.
     "The University of Delaware for the next four years will provide
each of us with the opportunity to study and explore fields of our own
choice. We will be given the opportunity to achieve our goals, as well
as the opportunity to fail, but either way, our experiences will be
what we make of them.
     "College truly may be one of the best times of our lives, but it
will also be one of the strangest. For instance: Where else are you
going to be able to eat such mass quantities of dining hall food
within the span of a single week? Where else will you be able to sleep
under the same roof with 300 other people your own age? Where else
will you have the chance to meet so many new people and exchange those
awkward opening lines such as, 'So...where are you from?' 'What's your
major?' and 'Oh, really? I thought Escape from L.A. was a great
movie!'
     "But, most importantly, within the next four years," Ippolito
said, "we will all have the chance to find our own paths, to discover
who we are and realize that we too will suddenly become one of the
many adults thinking back to their college days."
     Also participating in Convocation was Angelyn R. Robinson of
Newark, a sophomore majoring in music education, who led the singing
of the Alma Mater.
                                                          -Beth Thomas