“Taking the stage at last” at Convocation 2024

The student attendees of this year’s Convocation wore fun accessories in their class colors and were each handed another special accessory — a rainbow fan. The fan represents this year’s theme, a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of Mount Holyoke College’s inclusive admissions program.

Students arrived to kick off the academic year wearing hats, beads, deely boppers and face glitter and bearing pom-poms and parasols, each ready to cheer for their class and the College.

Claire Hanlon ’28, a recently arrived first-year student, said, “I have heard great things about Convocation, but I am not sure what to expect. I am anticipating that it is going to be loud.”

Other students, veterans of previous Convocations, still felt a sense of adventure. “This is the first time I feel like I have really had a moment of realization — we are all seniors!” said Meghan Anderson ’25. “Seeing all of us in regalia — I haven’t been feeling emotional yet. I think today is when it’s going to really hit for the first time.”

Sally Durdan ’81, chair of the Board of Trustees, opened the ceremony with a land acknowledgment and mourned the loss of a beloved campus fixture: the 120-year-old copper beech tree by Dwight Hall, which was damaged by a storm earlier this summer and had to be removed.

President Danielle R. Holley spoke next. “Mount Holyoke students are bold, unique, curious and unstoppable!” she said. Cheers rang out as she continued, “10 years ago, at this very event, then-President Lynn Pasquerella announced a brand-new admission policy. Mount Holyoke, the first of the so-called Seven Sister institutions, became the first to admit trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming students (TGNC).”

“In 1837, Mount Holyoke opened the gate to a rigorous education regardless of gender. In 2014, we cracked that gate wider. We had more students we needed to serve. More students whose diverse perspectives would enhance our academic excellence. More students who would thrive in our inclusive community,” she said. “We’ll be celebrating this anniversary all year, guided by the work of the TGNC10: Commemorating TGNC Inclusion at MHC group.” She thanked the TGNC10 group for working all summer on a meaningful Convocation.

“TGNC10 is part of a task force that I am creating for 2024-2025: The Presidential Task Force for the Trans and Gender Nonconforming Community,” Holley announced. “This group will help me ensure that we keep strengthening our inclusivity and enhancing resources and support for TGNC community members.”

TGNC10 Advisory Committee member and Diversity Fellow Emma Quirk ’26 said, “I am proud to call forth the names of student activists in organizations called Femmepowered and Open Gates. In 2014, they said what we proudly affirm today: trans women belong at Mount Holyoke.”

Lily E. Rood ’27, TGNC10 project coordinator, read her original poem, “Taking the Stage at Last.”

“For too long, when my sisters in transition, loud and proud, sought to be here, without fear, on the stage, the crowd was asked: do you stand with us? And for too long, the call rang out unanswered.

“Today, however, I am here, without fear, on the stage. I am loud, proud, a trans woman leader speaking to a crowd. And I need not ask, should I not choose? For at last, I know: Mount Holyoke stands with me, with my sisters and brothers and siblings, with all of us in transition,” she recited, as the audience leapt to its feet for a standing ovation.

Assistant Professor in Psychology and Education Jackson Matos was the event’s final speaker. “I identify as a first-generation and low-income person with disabilities and superpowers, Puerto Rican, Catholic, a spouse in an interracial marriage … a parent to three children … and I identify as a trans man,” he began.

“Here at Mount Holyoke, we rise to the challenge set by our founder, Mary Lyon, to ‘go where no one else will go and do what no one else will do.’ Our commitment to social justice goes beyond our 10-year-old gender-inclusive admissions policy because, since our founding 187 years ago, the Mount Holyoke College community has been going where no one else will go, and we have been doing what no one else will do,” Matos said.

“Going where no one else will go and doing what no one else will do means, as we did ten years ago, not waiting to do the right thing but having the integrity of actually doing the right thing — not in the service of popularity but in the service of justice,” he continued.

“And doing the right thing starts here at home. It means stepping up and stepping in if we encounter any behavior that derides or demeans any member of our community. It means striving to make Mount Holyoke a better place for future generations by caring for the resources and privileges afforded us. So, what do we all need to do this year?” Matos asked.

“We need to keep being the first: the first to be kind, to be inclusive, to bear witness and be co-conspirators, to challenge and question our policies and practices. We need to keep going where no one else will go and doing what no one else will do. And in so doing, we ensure that Mount Holyoke forever shall be.”