Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) welcomed its largest freshman class at a convocation held recently following a week of orientation to ease new students’ transition into university life.
Addressing the convocation was Ellis Cose, a renowned author, journalist, commentator and educator.
NU-Q dean and CEO Everette E Dennis said this year’s class continues to represent “the best and brightest students from Qatar and different countries across the globe to NU-Q.”
Among the more than 200 gathered for the ceremony include current students, alumni and staff.
Also speaking to the group was president of the NU-Q Student Union, Jemina Marcos Legaspi.
In his remarks titled, “How Do You Want to Be Remembered,” Cose told the group that they all had their own story and their university experience offers an opportunity to shape that story, saying “…there is also something universal about the college experience.”
Cose noted that while they live in “perilous times, it is important to think about how they want to be remembered.
“That journey, for many of you, will start here; so suck all the wisdom you can from this great university; and don’t worry about sucking it dry,” he told students.  “There will always be more knowledge to take its place. Use your time here as an occasion to look out on the larger world and find a place that both needs and deserves you, to find your next plot of soil where you really belong,” Cose said.
Joining Dennis and Cose was NU-Q’s faculty who led the new students into the venue dressed in full academic regalia.
A longtime columnist and contributing editor for Newsweek magazine, Cose is a former editorial page editor of the New York Daily News and has also been a contributing editor and press critic for Time magazine.