By: Tyler Rizzo
Convocation Day was held on Tuesday April 18th in the gymnasium of the Student Center to focus on human psychology, emotions, and overall mental health. It’s a day where classes are put on hold to bring students and faculty together to talk about an important topic. It is regarded as the largest annual gathering of students and faculty that takes place on campus and it allows students to learn in an environment that isn’t a classroom. We had the pleasure to have Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett as our speaker for the keynote presentation to talk about the brain and how emotions worked in our minds.
After her speech, there were sets of workshops run by faculty and for the first time run by students. The workshops ranged from talking about mental health in America and the effects on international college students to a seminar for succeeding in online learning to an interactive diversity event. There were a lot of different workshops to interact with and learn from.
Convocation day later then closed with two film screenings hosted by Chris Keaty, Ed Evans, and Tim Skinner. The films were, “The Mind Explained: How to Focus” and “The Mind Explained: Teenage Brain” and both films focused on the mind and different ways of how we functioned. It also focused on the still forming teen mind and why teenagers act the way they do sometimes.
Convocation day is an opportunity to learn about things you otherwise wouldn’t learn or know about and is a way to bond with professors during discussions about these topics. You don’t have to be a student or alumni to go to the event, community members are encouraged to participate in the event and learn from it just as much as students.
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