Southeastern Oklahoma State University had its freshman convocation and legacy walk Saturday afternoon to welcome the Class of 2028.
Freshmen walked from the Student Union to Legacy Plaza on the front lawn where a class of 2028 brick will be placed and the event concluded with the convocation in Montgomery Auditorium with SE President Thomas Newsom among those speaking.
Dr. Mike Davis, assistant professor and special assistant to the President for Compliance, spoke to the students at Legacy Plaza. Davis was the student body president of the SE Class of 2007 and he said he is a proud member of the Southeastern Alumni Association.
“One of the reasons that we talk a lot about legacy at Southeastern is because it’s very meaningful,” Davis said. “People like me who have graduated, who have been where you are, spent four years at Southeastern, graduated and gone out into the world and still feel a very strong connection to this university.
“I think it is an appropriate place for me to remind you of something you already know: Which is that over the next four years, you have an unwritten story, right? You have blank pages that you get to fill with whatever sentences you write about your story, about your time here.
“Here’s kind of the fun part: I think because the story doesn’t end there and I can speak to that through personal experience and I can speak to that from the same experience that the tens of thousands of alumni from around all of Oklahoma and the nation and the world to tell you that we have a deep love for this institution and a lot of loyalty to this school, and that’s because of some very important reasons and they’re simple ones. The friends that we made when we were here became our lifelong friends. The joy that we experienced when we were here became a part of our lifelong character.
“The lessons that we learned in our major and our classes here became a part of our lifelong career and of course, the mentors that we received here became a part of who we are today. So, this is the Legacy Plaza. I want to encourage you to be thinking about not only your story while you’re here, but also take into account the fact that the very first instances of that story gets to be written today.”
Classes at Southeastern started Monday.
