 Good afternoon and welcome to the 44th Convocation of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. My name is Arnav Garg, President of the Durham Student Senate. On behalf of all NTSSM campuses and programs, it is my honor to begin the program. All who can, please stand and remain rising for the playing of the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. I would now like to invite Nadej Siro, President of the Morgan Student Senate, Morganton Student Senate to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. It is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Kevin Baxter, Vice Chancellor and Chief Campus Officer of NTSSM, Morganton. Thank you, Nadej and Arnav, and thank all of you for being with us today. I am pleased to honor the special guests we have with us today at NTSSM's campus in Morganton. So I'd like to recognize Carl Riding, alumnus from the class of 1989 and a member of our Board of Trustees, and also Emily Martin, an alumna from the class of 1988 and the chair of our Parent Association Executive Committee. Thank you both for being with us today in Morganton. And now I have the honor of handing it off to my friend and colleague, Dr. Terry Lynch, the Vice Chancellor for Student Life and Chief Campus Officer for NTSSM Durham, Dr. Lynch. Good afternoon. It is my honor to introduce our special guests who are joining us on the Durham campus today. And I call your name, please stand. Jane Bullock, alumna, class of 1989, NTSSM Alumni Association Board of Directors President. John Frederick, NTSSM Executive Director Emeritus. Bonnie Rose, alumna, class of 1993, immediate past chair, Parent Association Executive Committee. It is now my honor and pleasure to introduce Dr. Todd Roberts, NTSSM Chancellor for his welcome and convocation remarks. Thanks, Dr. Lynch for the introduction and good afternoon, everybody. It's good to see everybody here in person here in the barn in Morganton. And I wanna welcome everyone who's live at the PEC in Durham. This is the beginning, our 44th convocation at NTSSM. And convocation, essentially, ceremonially starts the academic year each year. And so we're happy to have everyone here from the classes of 24 and 2025 in our residential and online programs this afternoon as we begin what's gonna be an amazing year. And I wanna again thank Madison for the music and Arnav and Nadej for getting the program off to a great start. Convocation this year is unique in the history of our school. We've of course had many convocations in person on the Durham campus over the years. We've had virtual convocations the past few years, but this year we have students in person on both campuses and are sharing the speeches virtually across the campuses and with our online students and families across the state. So each year going forward, we'll be alternating doing this with the keynote speaker this year here in Morganton, Ms. Erin Locklear. Next year, the speaker will be live in Durham and vice versa and on and on. So I wanna give a special shout out to the many people on both campuses who've especially made this possible. Those folks in our fine arts department, our IT teams and our extended learning teams that have worked really hard to pull together all of the moving pieces of this convocation between two campuses and the state as a whole virtually. They've done an amazing job and so let's just give them a round of applause, please. So holding convocation the way we are this year is one of the many intentional ways that we're working together as an institution. As NCSSM with multiple campuses, multiple programs, but one institution and this convocation is a way of symbolizing just that. I'm really excited to have all of our residential students on both campuses and can't wait to see many of our online students at their first online weekend. I'm looking forward to working with all of you this year as together we search for the many opportunities that we have to make this a fantastic year. I not only want to thank all of our students for being here this afternoon, but also our faculty and staff as well as our families and guests who joined us for this virtual portion of our convocation. All you've done and given to make this opportunity available this school year for the students assembled today, I want to thank you for all you've done to make that possible. I also want to again take the opportunity to welcome members of our Board of Trustees, Foundation Board, Alumni Board, Parent Association, former Chancellor John Frederick for spending time with us today. And in particular, thank Ms. Erin Locklear, our keynote speaker today. You'll learn more about her when she's introduced, so I won't get into that, but I will just say that hers is a wonderful NCSSM story and that of an amazing person. I'm thrilled that each year we start with an address from an outstanding alumnus and I'm looking forward to hearing Ms. Locklear share her story and insights with us. And through her story inspiring each of you as you continue to write yours this year, we could not be more fortunate to have her welcome us to the new school year. Each school year, we have a chance to write the next chapter in the NCSSM story. We can all look forward to the many possibilities the new year brings just as many classes before you have. So now here you are, the nearly 1500 students in the classes of 2024 and 2025 about to embark on a year where your story in many ways will be similar to the stories of those first 300 students in the classes of 1982 and 1983 and at the same time like no other. And that is true for all of you whether you're a student in the first two classes here in Morganton or the juniors and seniors in the 43rd and 44th classes in Durham or the residents or the students in the 17th and 18th online classes. This is one of the most amazing things about our school the ability to build on experiences and traditions from the past and innovate for the future. When I speak with alumni from all across NCSSM's earliest classes or those who've graduated this past decade, I'm amazed at how the experience they had and what was transformational for them sound very similar. The spaces on campus and some of the people were different but what they learned, the relationships they formed and the experiences they had and have taken with them or however, very much the same. As NCSSM students today and before you know it alumni of NCSSM, you'll be connected together through the experiences you have here over the next two years as well as being connected to the 12,000 plus alumni who've come before you through these shared NCSSM experiences. So whether you're a student here in Durham or Morganton or online, you're NCSSM students, dragons and unicorns. About nine years ago when we first were first to ask consider expanding our school to serve more North Carolinians we were excited for the opportunity. Our institution's founding legislation, legislative mandate was to educate talented students from across North Carolina in STEM and to advance public education in our state. We've done that for over the years initially with 150 students in that very first residential class going today, Durham campus to over 680 students. We've served students across our state through distance education since 1985 through interactive video conference and expanded our ability to serve students through online learning in 2007 with 75 students starting the program and now 450 students in the online program. So expanding to a second residential campus is in our DNA. I remember explaining to some alumni early on in the planning for our Morganton campus why we would open a second campus. It really came down to the conversations I've had with alumni over the years and hearing them speak about the transformational experiences they had at NCSSM. So why wouldn't we? We wanna jump at the opportunity to further our mission and provide 150 more talented students from all across our state each year, the same transformational experience. So why this afternoon am I giving a brief walk down NCSSM memory lane or a very abridged history of our school? Cause we're at a unique place in our 44 year history as an institution with a second residential campus fully operational, 980 residential students, our largest number of online students ever in the most robust extended learning programs we've ever had. We'll serve more than 4,000 students through NCSSM programs this year. We have a hundred plus new employees who've been working at NCSSM for less than three years. So I think it's important to make sure we all understand what those of you who've been at NCSSM much longer than I have or are familiar with. The school's commitment over the years to grow and evolve to meet our mission, to educate talented students across our state and advance public education. As we start this school year, we can undoubtedly say that we're continuing to meet this mission by serving more North Carolinians than ever before, providing all of our students here today and across our state. The NCSSM experience that our alumni speak about and cherish so fondly. There's a video that captures the four NCSSM students reflecting on their experiences at the end of last year. It's a great video and the reaction to that video from alumni from the 80s, the 90s and so on who've seen the video has been wow. These students' experiences sound a lot like what was important about my NCSSM experience. But these reactions have really helped highlight to me that each of you will have NCSSM experiences that will be your own, but will also be experiences familiar to your classmates and to the alumni who've come before you. So when members of the class of 2024 meet someplace a decade or three down the road or meet with alumni from the class of 1994, you'll quickly realize the experiences you have in common and the connection you have as NCSSM alumni. So as you begin your senior year or start your journey at NCSSM, yours is your own experience to create and it will be unique to you in many ways, but also a shared experience with your classmates over these two years and with those over the past 43. I hope this year together with talented students from every corner of North Carolina, amazing faculty and staff, you'll take the countless opportunities you will have to gain and apply new knowledge in the classroom, to test hypotheses in the lab, to make art, to design and create a device in one of our fabrication labs, to play and maybe also compete on the field or on the court to start a club that you have based on a longstanding interest or a brand new one you've just discovered. I urge you to notice and give attention to these opportunities as they come along and consider saying yes to them. Do them not just for the grade or the line on your college resume, but to experience, to learn, to grow and to connect. Opportunities are ultimately what you make of them and that's for you to decide what those opportunities you want to be. Will you choose explore many things or will you try to dive more deeply into fewer? Maybe you'll start exploring broadly and then focus on select passions. I want you to find excitement in trying, gain insights from failing and find joy in doing. This is what will allow you to create your own NCSSM experience and to design your own future. And some of the greatest opportunities you have will have an NCSSM will be found by engaging with your classmates. What our alumni remember as being one of them, one of, if not the most transformational parts of their NCSSM experience is the people. And a big part of this is the diversity of the people they met and became lifelong friends with. We are so fortunate that our student community reflects the rich diversity of our state. You'll meet people from urban and rural communities, people of different races and ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, life experiences and points of view. You'll get to know these peers on hall and in the classroom and across your campus and across both physical campuses and virtually as well. And while I know it can be a challenge these days to utter the words equity, diversity and inclusion, what I know from my experience and those of the many members of our NCSSM community now and over the years, the value of being equity minded in service to all North Carolinians is core to the NCSSM experience. While the impulse can be to seek out those most like you amid the uncertainty of new surroundings, I challenge you to seek out those who are different from you. There's an adage that reads something like this. When you believe that you can learn something from everyone, everyone will become someone. So I encourage you to engage, listen and be ready to share and return. If you leave NCSSM after two years having not learned from others different than you and not shared who you are with others, you would have missed one of the most valuable and special opportunities this school has to offer the people, all of the people that make the NCSSM community special. The juniors, I know over the past few days you've been provided with a lot of information, faced with a lot of change in newness and maybe a little overwhelmed at this point. But I hope that you're enjoying the start of the new school year, the first day of class, making friends and excited about where you find yourself. We're all here to support you on your journey. And as I mentioned earlier, over the past 43 years, members of the NCSSM community have shared those things essential to the NCSSM experience and have been so formative for so many over the years. This has enabled students from across decades to meet and talk about their shared experience, even though it was not the same exact experience. And for all of you, that will be more true than any previous class. With two physical campuses, construction projects in Morganton, Durham, all of that you'll get to witness firsthand. This is a particularly special and unique time in the history of our school and community. This will present some challenges that will overcome together and then reminisce about overcoming in the decades to follow. Kind of like the class of 1998 does when they get together, thinking about living the first six months of the school year in a hotel. Or the very first few classes at NCSSM, when they get together, they talk about walking down Ninth Street to eat meals at EK Po Elementary School. These will be our own unique memories. And so when you guys to get together in years down the road, you'll share some of these very same stories. And so while elements of the NCSSM experience are timeless and shared among and across classes, the ingredients that make the experiences are always changing and evolving. More than anything, what you and we will do together this year will help define your NCSSM experience and add to the rich history of our school. So thank you. And at this time, I would like to introduce NCSSM student government association presidents, Savin Skinner in Morganton and Steven Ramirez Serrano in Durham to provide remarks. Thank you. Hi, thank you everyone. We've lost power in Durham. So Steven can't speak his part right now, but hi, I'm Savin Skinner and I'm the student body president here at Morganton. For those of you who are coming back or are just starting your NCSSM experience, I'm so excited to welcome you to our school. I'd like to start by saying how proud I am of the incoming junior class across both campuses and the online program. You all have accepted the greater challenge and have taken the next step towards a bright and successful future. I know that right now, everything might seem scary, nerve-wracking and unknown, but you all are starting the next step of your life in a beautiful community that will do anything to help you reach your fullest potential. Steven was going to say that community is the most important thing here at NCSSM. I'd like to express my gratitude for this year's senior class. We've all pushed each other to be the best versions of ourselves. In the span of the year, I've watched my peers grow from antsy kids only just beginning to find themselves into beautiful young adults preparing for the next stage of life. I know many of us seniors can say that last year was the best year of our lives and I encourage you all to share that experience with the class of 2025. Part of our mission at NCSSM is to learn how to leave things better than we found them. Right now, that means using our remaining time here to not only grow ourselves, but also foster an environment that promotes others growth as well and leave a legacy that we can be proud of. Become leaders that our underclassmen are eager to ask for help and guidance. It's important to reach out when you need help. In Morganton, we've worked hard to start our campus' legacy while staying true to the legacy of our institution. There have been a couple of bumps in the road, but I'm very proud of the groundwork we've set. But much like the buildings on our campus, there's still so much to be done even after we've gone. Through rigorous courses and campus construction, we've built an incredibly strong and resilient community. We've been able to field athletic teams in 15 sports, create clubs and organizations around 43 distinct areas of interest and participate in academic competitions ranging from Envirathon to Robotics. I can't wait to see what we can do this year. The biggest advice I have for the incoming juniors across both campuses is to go outside of your comfort zone. I know many of you know exactly what you wanna do after your time here, but some of the best experiences I've had have come from joining a club that doesn't sound like me or running for a position that I never imagined myself in. This is an opportunity to have college-level experiences but with a safety net. Indulgent opportunities like clubs, sports, classes and J-term courses. One of the coolest things about the school is that you don't have to constantly worry about getting ahead. We all work to push each other forward. I have been so fortunate to become a member of NCSSM Morganton's inaugural class and represent you all as the Morganton campus' student body president. I think one of the most valuable things we gain at NCSSM is this network of lifelong friendships and contacts. Not only should you invest time in academics, but also take the time to get to know the beautiful individuals that surround you. I'm here to represent you all across all three campuses. Like in situations like this, I'm here to cover and I know Stephen will cover for me. We'll all cover for each other. We're all connected. Thank you so much for your time. I would now like to introduce our provost and vice chancellor for academic programs, Dr. Katie O'Conn. Thank you, Sevan. I was gonna see if I could get Stephen on the phone. Hey, Stephen. Oh, let's say I was gonna have him say hello. Hold on, we'll see if we can do it. Oh. Okay. Yeah, so they've lost power. There's a really bad thunderstorm in Durham. And so it's unfortunate they have lost power. So, okay. All right, let's keep going. On behalf of academic programs, I would like to welcome all of our residential and online students and the classes of 2024 and 2025, our faculty, staff, family, and NCSFM friends. I have the great privilege of introducing our convocation speaker for our 44th convocation. Erin Lachler, oh, sorry, Stephen's calling. We have to do this. Hey, Stephen. Oh, it's like I'm hearing myself. Stephen, can you hear us? Can you hear us? Hello. Wait, do you want to just say hello and welcome? Should I say the whole speech? Stephen, can you hear us? I can hear y'all. It's nice to be here with y'all through the phone right now. So, we were not gonna do your whole speech, but we are gonna tomorrow record you and Stephen and then we'll send out the recording to all the students. Does that sound like a good plan? That sounds great, yeah. Okay. All right, well, please stay safe in the storm. Okay, bye, Stephen. All right, all right, one big happy family. All right, well, I do have the great privilege of introducing our convocation speaker, Erin Lachler. She graduated from NCSFM in 1993. One of the things that I appreciate about Erin is how vividly she recalls impactful people and experiences that she had at NCSFM. 30 years after her graduation, she still recalls how Dr. Joanne Barber was the reason that she came to NCSFM. The summer after her eighth grade year, she attended Duke Young Scholars program and Dr. Barber led that program. Dr. Barber was a force in Erin's life who helped open doors and invested in her. Marlena Blakeney was her resident advisor at the time, that's what we called them. And also the person who was her home away from home connection. She recalls how Dana Shelton and Kevin Cromwell went above and beyond what was expected to give her advice that helped shape her life. She also talked about Joe Lyles, NCSFM's first art teacher, helping her to learn more about herself, who she wanted to be and how her culture influenced both of those ideals. She recalls her hall mates and friends all contributing to her shared memories and experiences at NCSFM. In these experiences, she considered transformational and changed her life. And I love the fact that her legacy continues to thrive at NCSFM. When she was on campus with the help of Joe Lyles, she created NCSFM's American Indian Club, established a pow wow and started a traditional drum group called Southern Sun. The NCSFM pow wow is still in existence today. This upcoming February, we will have our 32nd pow wow held on campus and organized by our amazing admissions team and many important NCSFM constituents and community friends and partners. Erin not only absorbed all the resources and mentoring she could get from NCSFM, but she left her legacy's impact on our school as well. Erin headed off to Princeton University after graduating where she earned a degree in sociology before returning to North Carolina to attend UNC Chapel Hill for law school. Erin has had a tremendous journey to her current position as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the Raleigh Durham Airport. Erin's attendance today indicates her investment in you, our students and demonstrates how everyone in the NCSFM family wants to help you develop and be successful. Erin has many gifts and you are very fortunate to have the next few minutes with her. I asked Erin to think about what advice she would give her younger self before starting NCSFM. And I asked her this question because I wanted you to hear firsthand what helped her in her success as a student. Erin will talk today about some important ideals related to accepting imperfection and belonging. Erin realized during her time that she was surrounded by talented students and that NCSFM made her feel like she mattered and her path and success weren't dictated by the path and success of others. Erin also mentions that NCSFM is not always a straight path to your dreams. It's bumpy, it's messy, but you are not alone. There are people in every position at NCSFM who are ready to help you. And Erin has returned to NCSFM as a board of trustee member and a servant leader. She dedicates her time on our board because she's been in your shoes as a student and she can now help make decisions that are best for you. Finally, Erin's focus is not on a building, it's not on an object, it's not on a thing. Her focus is on the people. It's on the people who contributed to her, who invested in her. And this is full circle because what makes her extraordinary and special is that her focus is always on the human. I have known Erin for several years and I wish more people could know about the qualities of Erin. She is down to earth, she's authentic. Erin does not judge people, she accepts people. Erin does not put conditions on people, she accepts them with no conditions. Imagine living and learning with friends and colleagues who are focused on humans and accept each other unconditionally. You are in for a big treat. Please give a warm welcome and round of applause to our convocation speaker, Erin Locklear. You'll have to give me a minute after that. Wow, that was quite the introduction. Thank you very much. I honestly don't know who she's talking about. I'd like to meet this person sometime. She sounds pretty great. But all jokes aside, this is a crazy moment to be here in this barn with all of you and the maybe dark PEC with the students there. It's amazing to be here for the first full compliment of they gave me a mic so I can walk around a little bit y'all. So the first full compliment of juniors and seniors in Durham and Morganton and online, it's such a joy to see juniors and seniors together on all of our campuses to fully round out the community. And the year will continue to be full of historic moments culminating with the first graduating class for Morganton this year. That's some of y'all in this room. What a great moment to be part of this community, part of this tradition and part of what is yet to come. So you may have already noticed I get a little emotional and I have to start by asking for your indulgence. It's an expression of my genuine and authentic self that my emotions are triggered when I discuss topics of gratitude and people I connect with. NCSSM changed the trajectory of my life in forming and empowering my dreams that had germinated in the fields of Robinson County. And I'm so full of gratitude, it spills over. I'm so full of gratitude for the amazing people I've met at NCSSM. So please bear with me as I am sure I will have, already I'm having intense moments of emotions with you today. This will not be the first time I relied on unicorns and now dragons for support and I appreciate your understanding. In fact, a perfect example of relying on a unicorn, my English teacher happened after I turned in my first English paper as a junior at NCSSM. Some of you may have come to NCSSM with perfect grades, perfect extracurriculars, never failing to easily do what has been expected of you. I came into NCSSM never really having made a grade lower than an A. Lots of people told me how smart I was, the same as many of you have experienced. Then I came to NCSSM and in my first semester I had an English teacher named Soon-Hing Lim and on my first paper, he gave me a C. I was shocked, but he was right. I didn't know how to write the type of sophisticated papers he assigned and expected. I was at a loss, I didn't know what to do. So I went to see him during his office hours. He walked me through what I had done wrong and how I could improve. It was a long road, but eventually I was able to write A-level papers in his class. One skill I had been missing was the power of editing. So many people had previously told me what a good writer I was that I did not know how to revise or edit my writing. Needless to say, that C was motivation to do better and Soon-Hing Lim was a patient teacher who taught me those skills. I still remember him telling me to rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. But here's the thing. If I thought I needed to be perfect, I wouldn't have been able to ask for help. It's easy to think that admitting we don't know something or don't understand something is a weakness. It's just the opposite. You're all here to learn. And you're incredibly fortunate to have landed in a place where the administrators, faculty, and staff you will meet are incredibly invested in your success. I'm looking at them now. I see that even more now as a trustee, you are the reason we're all here. Your success is incredibly important to us. And there is absolutely zero expectation that you will be perfect. Don't be perfect. Be gloriously imperfect. Learn. Help is all around you. All you have to do is ask for it and accept it. Each of you, I hope will ask for help and will give help easily this year. I still use those lessons that I learned in that English class over 30 years ago. Like when I worked on this speech, I did my research. I talked to other alumni, including some who have given previous convocation speeches. I made an outline and I rewrote, rewrote, rewrote. All the steps, just like I learned in that junior year English class, when I was shocked into elevating my writing process by Soon-Hing Lim-Si and his efforts to teach me. I also listened to some previous convocation speeches and they were intimidatingly good from some very impressive people. I'm not sure that I belong on that list, but it is important to me to be my genuine self today. So I want to share thoughts that can't come from me as a Lumbee raised and rooted in Robinson County. It was immeasurably grateful for the horizon broadening opportunities that NCSSM gave me. In my tribe, the Lumbee tribe, when we meet another Lumbee, we don't know, we often ask, who's your people? It's as automatic and ubiquitous as shaking someone's hand or asking someone's name. On the surface, this question is used to figure out literally who someone's people are. Who's your family, your parents, your grandparents? Do I know them? Do I have a connection to your people and therefore to you? Do we know each other even though we've never met because our people know each other? But to reach a little deeper, who's your people really asked three things? One, who do you follow? Two, who do you walk alongside? And three, who are you walking in front of so they can follow you? Seems like this'll be a moment, y'all just bear with me. It seems like the right time to take a moment to tell you who I follow, who my people are. So my parents, Dewey and Mary Elizabeth Locklear, my grandparents, Ernest and Agnes Strickland, Harley Freeman and Benny and Dolly Locklear, sharecroppers and tenant farmers, textile plant workers, dig ditchers, Baptist deacons and backsliders, high school cafeteria workers, fruit sellers, moonshiners, folks who put in tobacco, picked cotton and cucumbers, and the hardest workers I know. Thanks to them for all the hard work they put into me. The money they found to buy what we couldn't afford and the sacrifices they made, the shoulders they gave me to stand on, they are who I follow. But who's your people means much more than just who your family is. It asks you who you care about, who built you, who invested in you, who gets you excited, who range you in, who challenges you, who makes you feel at home, who makes you feel safe, who reminds you of who you are when you forget, who tells you the hard truth in a soft way, who celebrates you, who invests in you. In other words, who do you walk alongside? It is one of my life's greatest blessings that my people, those who I walk alongside, include so many folks I've met at NCSSM. My people include unicorns and dragons. Who's your people is focused on humanity. It's about people. It seeks commonality and connection, even with a stranger. Who's your people is the polar opposite of the weaponized hate that we can so easily see around us. Earlier this year in the U.S. Supreme Court case, 303 creative versus Alainas, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote this observation in a blistering dissent. Around the country, there has been a backlash to the movement for liberty and equality. New forms of inclusion have been met with reactionary exclusion. This is heartbreaking. Sadly, it is also familiar, she wrote. But it doesn't need to be this way. It is up to you to seek those commonalities and build those bridges when needed to care for your NCSSM community. Who's your people is about taking care of your community, taking care of the people you walk alongside. Look around you here in the barn and in Durham at the PEC. This is your community. These are your people. You will be walking alongside each other this year. How will you care for them? How will you hear and be heard when talking with someone who you disagree with strongly? With someone who you don't like? Will you check in on someone when the roommate is gone for the weekend to see if they're lonely? Will you invite a homemade you don't know well to sit with you at dinner? Will you follow the rules you don't agree with while advocating for their change without vilifying the person who will enforce them? Will you cheer on each other's successes? Hug each other in the defeats? Will you invite your classmate who hasn't had access to the same opportunities you have to join you in your study group? How will you take care of your people you walk alongside? Will you include people who don't look like you, sound like you, think like you? If you don't include those folks, you will have missed an opportunity to grow. Imagine if I, a Lumby girl from a very rural part of North Carolina with a very strong Southern accent hadn't learned English from Professor Soon-Hing Lim for whom English was not his first language. And so he spoke with a very different accent. I would have missed a valuable lesson and a chance to walk alongside him and to allow him to help me. Who's Your People is also about allowing someone to follow you. Your community, your people includes former classmates and other folks who aren't sitting with you today. Some of whom may have worked harder than you and be just as smart as you, but did not have access to the opportunities you have. In some instances, there were doors quite literally not open to them. Will you take the skills, knowledge and access? You are lucky enough to get here in Morganton and Durham and online and plant it in other locations so it will multiply. Will you unlock and open those closed doors? Will you blaze a path to help others follow you? I have faith that each and every one of you will do just that in a way that works for you. That knowing and caring for your community, your people will include allowing others to follow you. And finally, what about you? You are a central part of your own community. Only you can answer the question who's your people, who you follow, who you walk alongside, and who follows you. Please remember to take care of yourself this year. Eat healthy, get enough sleep, get some relaxation, exercise, have fun, laugh, cry, wonder, stretch. While I have described the importance of taking care of your people and your community, remember that it is not your responsibility to carry your community on your back. You do not owe it to someone else to be successful, but you do owe it to yourself to work hard to achieve your version of success and to be your best imperfect self in this time in this community. You may be nervous, especially juniors who are finding everything new for the first time. There may be moments where you are more nervous than others, an audition, a presentation, a game, a test, a performance. Here's the thing I hope you remember. Everyone is nervous. Don't be intimidated by that feeling. Do it, nervous. And while I'm asking you to do it nervous, I'm not asking you to do it alone. Luckily, you're surrounded by resources devoted to helping you be successful. Counselors, teachers, advisors, supporters, please use them. Ask for help. None of us do it alone and none of us have to. You may feel like others deserve to be here more than you. That every time you turn around, there is someone that has more, knows more, has done more or is better at it than you. You may think you don't belong. That feeling, when it comes, will be wrong. You belong. And I'll say that again, maybe not so emotionally. You belong. You will learn, you will thrive, you will stumble, and you will be a unique and special part of this community this year. You are among your people and you are someone else's people. You walk alongside each other. You belong. Remember that. I am already so proud of you. I said at the beginning that I hope to share words with you that were truly genuine to who I am. I hope I've done that. I hope your year gives you memories and thoughts and friends and laughs and tears and all the things to help you know who you genuinely are and to give you the vision to push the horizons of who you are growing to be. I hope if someone asks you the question, who's your people? Your answer will have a long list that includes many of the dragons and unicorns sitting next to you in this barn in the PEC and online today. Now, as brilliant as I'm sure you think my words have been today, I would like to leave you with words from someone else, the first black poet to win the Pulitzer Prize, Wendelin Brooks, in her poem, Speech to the Young. Say to them, say to the down keepers, the sun slappers, somebody knows it, I see, the self-spoilers, the harmony hushers. Even if you are not ready for day, it cannot always be night, you will be right. For that is the hard home run. Live not for the battles won, live not for the end of the song, live in the along, enjoy your along, enjoy your people, have a wonderfully imperfect year right here where you belong. Mind coming back up here just for one moment please, and thank you. This is a gift for our speaker and it is, if you can see, it's actually a print of the Durham campus done by someone she mentioned in her speech, the original art teacher, Joe Liles. So both mean a lot to Erin and so Erin, thank you. You mean a lot to us. But as we close our 44th convocation and for all the folks in Durham, I don't know if you are still in the PEC, in the dark with power, but we're absolutely thinking about you and hope you're doing okay. So I want to thank again everyone today who helped plan this event. I mean, this is a complicated event without weather intervening. And so really thanks again to our fantastic fine arts and IT and extended learning teams for making this afternoon possible to our fantastic musicians, music faculty for helping to figure out how to produce these videos and make the music seem seamless and fantastic. Our two student leaders, Seven and Nadej and Steven and Arnav and a huge thank you to Dr. O'Connor and Dr. Little, Dr. Teche, Mr. Borner, Ms. Lambert for all your work in planning today's event. I think we had six rehearsals for this to pull this off and it really does truly take a village to pull off this kind of one of a kind convocation. And again, I want to thank all of our faculty and staff who are here today in Durham or Morganton and thank you for your amazing dedication to being ready to start this school year and provide the students the kind of experience we know they will have and for what you do every day and every year for our students. So we know the start of the school year is always filled with a lot of excitement, right? You know, the first few days getting to know new people as is the start of anything new. So as you spend this year having your experience learning, struggling, enjoying all that lies ahead of you, I want you to remember what got you here. And it's your commitment to learning, your courage, your motivation and your drive to challenge yourself to the highest ability, your highest ability and beyond and your resilience in the face of adversity. So every school year is gonna bring challenges. We've all known, we know that for sure. And it's also gonna bring the multitudes of opportunities that I spoke about earlier. So while we know that you will learn many things new and different this year, what you make of them will both not only define your year but help you grow and prepare you for the next year and the many years ahead of you. And you're gonna find, and I think Erin mentioned this in her speech several times, that there are no more amazing and committed professionals anywhere than here at NCSSM. And we're all here to support you and help you succeed. And as she said, just to ask when you need it. But of course, the thing that's gotten you here along with the help of your families and the many educators before is your own commitment to being successful. And that is one of, if not the most important thing. So take advantage of the many opportunities you'll find at NCSSM and all that you'll make, explore your interests, grow your passions, strive to be your best while helping those around you and your community be better. This year is filled with the possibilities of what you and we will make of it together. So now, if you would and are able, please stand. Our Alma Mater will be performed by members of the Morganton Corral and Chamber Strings. So please rise along if you can and sing along the words are on your program. And again, thank you all for being here this afternoon. Let's make it a fantastic year. And after the Alma Mater, we'll have a recessional and then you guys will head over in Morganton to the Commons for Reception and Endurum in the PEC. So have a great year and let's sing our Alma Mater. Thank you again and we will recess. And again, for folks here in Morganton, the reception is over in the Academic Commons. Thank you again all for being here today.