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MC President Bryan Coker to speak of ‘Journeys and Adventures’ for 2022 Convocation

Aug. 23, 2022

A new year dawns at Maryville College this week, and to mark the occasion, President Bryan F. Coker will deliver the annual Convocation address to new and returning students, faculty and staff at 11:15 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 25.

The ceremony, which marks the opening of the 2022-23 academic year, will take place in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center for the Arts, and the public is invited to watch via a live stream. Coker will speak with the assembled Scots about “Journeys and Adventures,” and the selected Scripture for the occasion is Isaiah 40:25-31.

“Back in the spring, we were named Top Adventure College through a contest sponsored by Blue Ridge Outdoors magazine,” explained Coker. “I believe the honor is deserved — we have unique curricula and programs in place to provide students with opportunities to be adventurous both in the outdoors and in the more traditional sense. But I’m also proud that we encourage and enable our students to seek out any adventure and journey that, as we say, prepares them for anything, including the unexpected.”

The ceremony will begin when this year’s seniors, the class of 2023, leads the processional of staff and faculty delegates and platform speakers into the auditorium. Faculty Chair Dr. Dan Ross, associate professor of mathematics, will welcome attendees, and several members of the senior class will take part in the service. Allie Osorio Candelario ’23, senior class president, will give the invocation; Student Government Association President Maddie Taylor ’23 will deliver the College’s Statement of Purpose; and Brahams Scholar Angela Stolpe ’23 will read the selected Scripture.

Piper Andrew K. Kerr will lead the opening procession, and the Maryville College Concert Choir, directed by Stacey Wilner, director of choral activities and music lecturer, will perform the opening anthem “Hear My Prayer” (arranged by Moses Hogan). Chase Hatmaker ’14, adjunct choral assistant, will serve as accompanying organist.

Following Coker’s address, Dr. William Meyer, MC professor of philosophy, will offer prayers for the College, followed by the declaration of the academic year by Dr. Dan Klingensmith. Following the singing of the Alma Mater, Meyer will offer the closing benediction, and the MC Concert Choir will bring the Convocation to a close with a performance of Peter C. Lutkin’s “Benediction and Amen.”The public is invited to view the livestream via the College’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/maryvillecollege) or on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/event/2371994.

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”