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The First Year Academic Convocation is an annual event at Boston College, welcoming the freshman class into the academic community of the University. Students customarily assemble under the banners of their residence halls on Linden Lane, where they are charged by representatives of the faculty and the Jesuit community with the words of St. Ignatius to St. Francis Xavier in 1542: “Go, set the world aflame.” The class then makes a torch-lit procession along a route the members will retrace four years later at Commencement—through Middle Campus, down the Higgins Stairs toward Conte Forum and Alumni Stadium. In Conte, an author whose book was assigned reading over the summer addresses the class and then takes questions—betokening the four years of inquiry to come. Past speakers have included Dr. Paul Farmer and Tracy Kidder (subject and author, respectively, of Mountains Beyond Mountains), Senator Barack Obama (Dreams from My Father), and Ann Pachett (Run).
Heavy rain prevented the march this year. The speaker on September 16 was Daniel Wolff, author of How Lincoln Learned to Read. Above, members of the Class of 2014 from the Newton Campus residence hall Keyes North gathered in Conte Forum prior to the ceremonies.