{"id":20433,"date":"2025-08-22T16:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T20:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=20433"},"modified":"2026-08-11T09:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:27:06","slug":"elizabethtown-college-officially-opens-2025-26-academic-year-at-convocation-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2025\/08\/22\/elizabethtown-college-officially-opens-2025-26-academic-year-at-convocation-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College Officially Opens 2025-26 Academic Year at Convocation Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elizabethtown College marked the official start of the 2025-26 academic year at the annual Convocation ceremony on Friday, Aug. 22, in The Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness &amp; Well-Being.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Convocation is a signature Etown tradition that celebrates incoming students and recognizes faculty awards and promotions. The ceremony included a candle lighting, a litany of light, along with remarks from President Betty Rider and members of the College community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/s\/aHBqjCrymp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">View photos from the ceremony.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During the event, President Rider offered advice to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2025\/08\/21\/elizabethtown-college-welcomes-class-of-2029-to-campus-this-fall\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">class of 544 first-year and incoming transfer students<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, reminding the new Blue Jays that the connections they build at Etown extend far beyond their time on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cThe relationships you build here will support you long after you graduate,\u201d Rider said. \u201cSo, join that club, sit with someone new, and say yes to opportunities &#8211; you never know where they\u2019ll lead. Forging your path means exploring what excites you, testing your skills, and learning from setbacks. Take classes outside your comfort zone. Seek research, internships, and leadership roles. Etown is committed to learning by doing &#8211; preparing you for a career and a life of purpose.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For the second consecutive year, the College set a record with 3,855 applications submitted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Etown\u2019s academically accomplished class of new Blue Jays was celebrated and recognized as a group. Highlights of the class include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An average first-year student GPA of 3.74\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students hailing from 10 U.S. states and seven foreign countries<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">140 students accepted into the Honors Program at Elizabethtown College<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">10 incoming Stamps Scholars (The Stamps Scholarship program recognizes and rewards exceptional students who exemplify leadership, perseverance, scholarship, service, overcoming obstacles, and innovation)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etown.edu\/admissions\/incoming-class.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full Fall 2025 Incoming Class Profile.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also recognized at Convocation were newly promoted faculty effective in the 2025-26 academic year, as well as winners of the Kreider Prize for Teaching Excellence, the Polanowski Prize for Excellence in Faculty-Student Advising and Mentorship, and the Ranck Prize for Research Excellence.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Newly Promoted Faculty<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cristina E. Ciocirlan, Ph.D. Promoted to Professor of Business<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Faculty Prize Winners<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2024-2025 Kreider Prize for Teaching Excellence Recipient\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/elizabethtown-college-announces-2024-25-kreider-prize-for-teaching-excellence-recipient\/\">Suzanne E. Webster<\/a>, DPhil. Ralph W. Schlosser Professor of English and Director of the English Literature Program\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>2024-2025 Polanowski Prize for Excellence in Faculty-Student Advising and Mentorship Recipient\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2025\/03\/12\/elizabethtown-college-announces-recipient-of-2024-25-polanowski-prize\/\">Conrad L. Kanagy<\/a>, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology Emeritus\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>2024-2025 Ranck Prize for Research Excellence Recipient\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2025\/01\/14\/elizabethtown-college-announces-2024-2025-ranck-prize-for-research-excellence-recipient\/\">Cristina E. Ciocirlan,<\/a> Ph.D. Professor of Business\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>2024-2025 Schmidt Prize for Excellence in Student-Faculty Service Recipient\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/elizabethtown-college-announces-recipient-of-2024-25-schmidt-prize\/\">Kurt M. DeGoede<\/a>, Ph.D. Professor of Engineering<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elizabethtown College marked the official start of the 2025-26 academic year at the annual Convocation ceremony on Friday, Aug. 22, in The Bowers Center for Sports, Fitness &amp; Well-Being. Convocation is a signature Etown tradition that celebrates incoming students and recognizes faculty awards and promotions. The ceremony included a candle lighting, a litany of light, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":20437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1338,775],"tags":[2543,1229,197,1350],"class_list":["post-20433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-and-research","category-campus","tag-class-of-2029","tag-convocation","tag-elizabethtown-college","tag-etown","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20433"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22198,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20433\/revisions\/22198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}