Kicking off the Academic Year with Fall Convocation

Founded in 1833, Stephens has spent 193 years educating students in Columbia, but as Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Leslie Willey ’83 noted in her opening remarks, convocation at Stephens is focused entirely on looking ahead.

“The word convocation has Latin roots meaning calling together,” Dr. Willey told the room. “At some institutions, it marks the end of a student’s journey, focused on graduation. But here at Stephens, it’s about the beginning. It’s a time to pause, reflect, and set our hopes for the coming year.”

Dr. Willey invited the crowd to celebrate the Stephens faculty, describing them as the heart and soul of the college and praising their dedication to helping every student thrive.

Finding Community and Filling Each Other’s Cups

Senior Faith Decker, past Student Government Association officer, brought humor and personal reflection to the stage, welcoming new and returning Stars alike.

“What I really see when I think about my years here is the community that I’ve built,” Decker said. “In my classroom where I student teach, we talk about making sure to fill each other’s cups. We support one another in order to be the best us we can be. I see that every day at Stephens, and I look forward to continuing seeing it with you all.”

Dr. Andrea Fifield, Associate Professor of Counseling, spoke on behalf of the faculty. Drawing on the words of psychologist Carl Rogers, she encouraged students to embrace self-acceptance as a springboard for growth.

“All of us here at Stephens, students, faculty, and staff, bring our own personal histories with us,” Fifield said. “Carl Rogers once said, ‘The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.’ Stay rooted in your history, but allow yourself to evolve. And don’t just trust the process. Enjoy it. Relish it.”

Alumna and former faculty member Cat Withrow ’05 returned to campus this semester from Ciudad Vieja, Guatemala, to teach Global Ethics and delivered the keynote address. Withrow, an international development leader who has spent over 15 years working across Latin America with the United Nations, USAID, and nongovernmental organizations, shared how her time at Stephens prepared her for an unpredictable world.

She recounted returning from study abroad in Ecuador during her junior year to find that campus reorganization had eliminated both of her majors and minors. Instead of leaving, she partnered with professors who helped her build a custom, independent-study curriculum for her senior year.

“When the curriculum disappeared, the faculty did not,” Withrow said. “Together with the professors I had grown to know so well, we built a personalized curriculum. It was the richest education of my life. That is not luck. That is how this place works. And to the faculty and staff sitting here: that is what you are actually building. Not a syllabus, not a course. A relationship and a way of thinking that holds far beyond the classroom.”

Looking out at the audience, Withrow offered three pieces of advice for navigating life and career:

• Learn how to learn: “The content you acquire here may have a shelf life. Critical thinking does not.”
• Define your values before someone else defines them for you: Referencing the Ten Ideals of Stephens College, she reminded students of their “belief in our changing selves and in our right to change. You have institutional permission, in writing, to become someone other than who you planned to be.”
• Plant a mixed garden: Drawing a comparison between fragile monoculture farming and the diverse landscape around her home in Guatemala, Withrow urged students not to build a life around a single metric of success. “Stephens is not a monoculture. It never has been. It is actors and nurses and entrepreneurs and writers. That is what resilience actually looks like: continuity through change. You have been handed a rich, tangled hillside. Please do not tame it into clean rows.”

President Shannon Lundeen closed the ceremony by reflecting on Withrow’s message and making a special announcement: Dr. Leslie Willey will retire next summer at the close of the academic year after decades of leadership.

“Leslie has devoted her leadership to the academic heart of Stephens: to our faculty, our programs, our standards, and above all, to the education of our students, from the preschoolers at the Children’s School to our graduate students,” President Lundeen said. “She has helped guide this College through change while remaining a steady advocate for the work that matters most.”

President Lundeen encouraged students to lean into curiosity, take intellectual risks, and remember that education is built through community and real-world partnership.

“Stephens exists to widen the frame of possibility for students and communities through education rooted in relationship, real-world experience, and partnership,” President Lundeen said. “Your potential matters. But potential is only the beginning. Purpose takes shape in what you choose to do with your abilities: in what you create, whom you care for, what you build, what you question, and how you act.”

The ceremony concluded with a musical performance of Stephen Sondheim’s “Our Time” by Stephens musical theatre students, followed by the singing of the Stephens Hymn, led by Violeta Cuevas ’27 and Savannah Grady ’27.