First Year Academic Convocation 2013 will take place on Thursday, September 12 and feature Bill Strickland, author of Make the Impossible Possible. Members of the Class of 2017 and incoming transfer students will receive a copy of the book, as well as a custom Boston College reading guide, when they attend Orientation.

Since the Fall of 2004, Conversations in the First Year has enriched the intellectual lives of our newest students. It begins at Orientation, where all incoming students are given a common text. This book helps to create the year's academic theme. Then, early in their first semester, all first year students gather for the First Year Academic Convocation. Each year the Convocation speaker addresses the class, inspiring the themes of the summer reading. Convocation is filled with ritual, ideas, and conversation that kick off the academic year. All first-year students are required to join us for this event.

Past Speakers (and Summer Reading)

2012 - Dan Barry (Bottom of the 33rd)

2011 - Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin)

2010 - Daniel Wolff (How Lincoln Learned to Read)

2009 - Ann Patchett (Run)

2008 - J.R. Moehringer (The Tender Bar)       

2007 - Jeanette Walls (The Glass Castle)        

2006 - Senator John McCain (Lives of Moral Leadership by Robert Coles)

2005 - Senator Barack Obama (Dreams from My Father)

2004 - Dr. Paul Farmer and Tracy Kidder (Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder)

 "Go set the world aflame."
- Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)

In the entrance of the Jesuit headquarters in Rome is a striking statue of Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) with the motto "Ite, inflammate omnia." - "Go set the world aflame" - his parting words to Francis Xavier who was carrying the Gospel to the East. This is our charge as you begin your experience at Boston College. Take the gift of education and carry it to great places throughout the world.