UPDATED LOCATION: With the growing potential for rain and storms this afternoon and evening, the Numen Lumen: Senior Baccalaureate Reflection will be moved to the rain location, Alumni Gym.
The Numen Lumen: Senior Baccalaureate Reflection will provide graduating seniors an opportunity to come together as a class on Tuesday, May 16, for reflection, with a focus on Elon’s motto, “Numen Lumen” — signifying intellectual and spiritual light — that students will now take into the world. The featured speaker will be Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Jeff Stein, who was recently selected to become the next president at Mary Baldwin University.
Due to the growing potential for rain and storms on Tuesday afternoon and evening, members of the Class of 2023 will gather in Alumni Gym for the ceremony.
Along with reflections by students and Stein, the gathering will include multifaith blessings and musical performances and will conclude with a candle-lighting ceremony. The event will be a bookend to the time the Class of 2023 has spent as students at Elon, which began in August 2019 at New Student Convocation when these new students received an acorn. After Tuesday night’s program, each graduate will receive an oak sapling from an Elon alum, symbolizing their transition from student to graduate.
The ceremony is designed to be a space of reflection and transition for seniors. As the first Commencement Week event, the ceremony is a way for members of the graduating class to come together with those who were with them the entire way.
The Tuesday program will be followed by the Senior Celebration on Wednesday, May 17, in Rhodes Stadium. Both events are for members of the graduating class. Families are welcome to join their students at Commencement Week events on Thursday, May 18, and Friday, May 19.
For more information and a full schedule of Commencement Week events, visit www.elon.edu/commencement.