On Thursday, Sept. 4, a new member of the Macalester community, Rev. Hannah Adams Ingram, serving as a college chaplain and associate dean for institutional equity, welcomed fellow newcomers to campus to begin Macalester’s annual Convocation in the Leonard Center Fieldhouse.
After reciting a land acknowledgment, Ingram invited the Board of Trustees (BoT) Secretary Gloria Perez ’88 to the podium. Perez shared her journey of discovering her passions by participating in the women’s collective and volunteering with Esperanza United (an organization that unites Latino communities against domestic violence) in her time at Macalester. Now, she serves as secretary for Esperanza United and executive director of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.
“One of my favorite joys in a new academic year is meeting a diversity of new people through new experiences,” Perez said. “You’re fitting your class schedule together, checking out the Twin Cities and signing up for a lot of student organizations at the Involvement Fair. Not all of these experiences are going to be amazing fits for you, and that’s just as important of a lesson as finding out what is a right fit.”
President Suzanne Rivera reminded attendees that, despite new policies, practices and federal executive orders that have complicated many community members’ journeys to campus and the landscape of higher education more broadly, she remains committed to Macalester’s values.
“We are not changing who we are or what we stand for,” Rivera said. “What we stand for here brings me an incredible amount of hope and joy. At this time of great pain and difficulty around the world, it might seem surprising for me to focus on the idea of joy, but in my view, we can be realistic about the challenges we face, and at the same time understand that joy is an imperative.”
Building on Rivera’s speech, Provost Lisa Anderson-Levy spoke of the work community members undertook to support each other and the campus community over the summer. This included collaborations across departments to house international students on campus who feared they may not be able to return if they left the United States.
Macalester College Student Government (MCSG) President Willow Albano ’26, who is Macalester’s first Filipino student body President, then took to the podium to remind both incoming and returning students to lean into their passions and responsibilities at Macalester in honor of those who came before them and those who could not be at Macalester this year.
“By pursuing the privilege of a higher education, we carry a responsibility to others to use that education and speak up,” Albano said. “As we live in an unprecedented time of transition, we find ourselves in a unique position to shape what comes next and actively contribute to making the future better than the present.”
After a performance from Macalester’s African Music Ensemble, Rivera introduced Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and the highest ranking Indigenous woman in United States politics. Having previously collaborated with Perez through the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota, which uplifts young women’s voices in government, Flanagan highlighted opportunities to explore passions.
“This is a beautiful time when you get to focus on you, how you take in information, how you show up in community, the kind of person that you want to be in this world — you get that right now, and it is a gift,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan went on to acknowledge the importance of following one’s vocation, which she defines as “what you lose track of time doing, what feeds you.” Flanagan professed that while someone’s occupation might change, their vocation will keep them at home in their work. She also affirmed that for incoming students, the Macalester and broader Minnesotan community will become a home too.
Keynote speaker Megan Vossler, who chairs the art and art history department, regaled the attendees with a story of her failure to immortalize a Baroque-style banquet that she arranged for campus squirrels on video. Although Vossler succeeded in pressing the record button, she failed to turn the auto-focus off, rendering the footage unusable. For Vossler, the story represents how mistakes and failures are not only normal, but essential for growth.
“What matters is not how often you fail,” Vossler said. “What matters is that you come back to the drawing, to the class discussion, to the athletics practice, to your activism work, to your own messy and imperfect self, what matters is whether you’re willing to pick up the pencil, literally or metaphorically and begin again.”
Following Vossler’s speech, the event concluded with a reading of the Macalester Peace Prayer, and attendees filtered out of the Fieldhouse to consume a bagged lunch prepared by Bon Appétit.
