By Aidan Bearden / Staff Writer 

Missouri Valley College’s annual convocation brought the community together to celebrate the beginning of the semester and motivate students to continue their college journey. The celebration honored the college’s faculty, staff, and students. Additionally, it celebrated the college’s immense diversity and the wide range of sports and student organizations at MVC. 

The ceremony began at 10 a.m. with the national anthem and a brief prayer. Following this, Ken Kujawa announced each sport, accompanied by an honorary walk from the coach and senior players of each sport. Dr. Cynthia Bice, Chloe Mills, Dr. Chris Libby, Rachel Hayworth, Tom Hayob, and Dr. Joe Parisi then delivered their own speeches for the ceremony. These speeches were mostly to inspire and honor the school.

After the convocation ceremony, the President’s Picnic was hosted on the quad, where barbecue was served. The president’s picnic allowed students to socialize, eat, and play yard games. Hundreds of students joined the faculty and staff for the picnic. The Administrative Assistant to the President, Brandy Schulte, was the main director of the event, and she said the convocation is meant to get students out of their dorms and get students together.

“We want everybody to come together, and that’s why we end it with a picnic, it’s a celebration,” said Schulte. “I feel like that gives everybody a sense of a home and family.”

 Convocation is also an opportunity for students to unwind for a day during the often-stressful beginning of the semester. 

“School starts pretty hard, especially when it comes to sports, jobs, and everything,” said student Vasil Stoimenov. “It is good for me to have this convocation, just to meet people, have this day off, relax a little bit.” 

Convocation is a long-running tradition at MVC. However, an important goal of convocation is to allow the newcomers to MVC to grasp a better understanding of the community and the perks of being a student at MVC.

Shulte said, “We tried to get freshmen to understand more about what Missouri Valley has to offer.”

Freshman Chase Schlossenberg says he felt welcomed by the event as a freshman and enjoyed the campus collectiveness. 

“It’s really cool to see everyone come together for something like this.” 

The President’s Picnic ended at about 1 pm. Shulte hinted at the possibility of hosting another big event like Convocation in the spring semester in hopes of bringing the community together again.