By Jasmine Durst; Photo Credits to Joshua Ellenbogen
The Susquehanna University community united to “lift every voice” during a time of uncertainty in the world.
President Jonathan Green explained in his welcoming speech that, according to the New York Times, over 540,000 people living in the U.S. have been deported in the past year.
Despite this news, Susquehanna University, once again, demonstrated how important inclusion is within its community on Jan. 19.
The theme for the 2026 MLK convocation was “What ties us together?”
Susquehanna’s new Chaplain, Stina Schaeffer ‘04, explained that the theme was inspired and rooted in Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham jail.”
She gave a reading and reflection of this year’s convocation theme with excerpts from Bishop Desmond Tutu on Ubuntu and a few of her own reflections on “the importance of relationship.”
Schaeffer said: “I was honored to be a part of the MLK convocation. It was a deeply moving event with poetry, song and reflection, as we began the new semester and welcomed our new students. The gathered assembly reflected on the question before us and heard many different perspectives.”
Rabbi Nina Mandel, Director of Jewish Life, said, “Gatherings like this do not solve the world’s problems, but when so much else in the world seems unsettled, taking the time to come together, even for just a few hours, helps affirm that we are not alone.”
Rabbi Nina explained that “bringing people on campus together who have strong but opposing views and commit to respectful dialogue, even in the midst of disagreement” is the next big challenge.
Dr. Monica Prince, associate professor of creative writing, said, “It’s not enough to call for unity—we must practice it every breathing moment, if we are to call ourselves human, if we are to call ourselves educated, empathetic and earnest in the pursuit of freedom and justice for all.”
As a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 14 students and staff members performed a multilingual reading of Dr. King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
The languages spoken were English, Ukrainian , Hebrew, Swahili, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Jamaican Patois, Tagalog, German, French, Italian and Somali.
Vladyslav Vashchuk ’27, who read an excerpt of the speech in Ukrainian, said, “The multilingual reading conveyed a powerful message to the world: that Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideas are strong, achievable, and realized when people stand up, break the chains of harmful beliefs, and fight for freedom.”
Susquehanna student Nevahn Oliver ‘29, who is an alumnus of Milton Hershey School, introduced Milton’s New Horizons Choral Ensemble.
New Horizons, under the direction of Jen Wagner, sang “United in Purpose” by Rollo Dilworth followed by “Abide With Me” by Brian Hanson, getting the audience clapping and snapping to their beats.
Oliver got to sing the first song with his old choir and had an emotional reunion with his high school choir teacher.
He told the story of how he stumbled into the choir room during his sophomore year of high school, and Wagner asked him to return the following year, expressing gratitude for his former teacher and love for the Milton Hershey choir.
Oliver also led the audience-participated song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” words by James Weldon Johnson and music by J. Rosemond Johnson, arranged by Lloyd Larson.
The second musical selection, also audience-participated, was “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie, led by Stina Schaeffer ‘04 with Jonathan Moser on the piano for both selections.
Dr. Monica Prince read her original poem, “Unraveling,” a response to the convocation’s theme, while also having the back row be given a yard of yarn to unravel throughout the poem.
Prince said: “I wrote “Unraveling” to remind our community that when things fall apart, we learn who we really are. I just hope that if we don’t like what we see, we’re brave enough to change it.”
Prince explained that her role as a professor of activist and performance writing was to show her students that she was “just as willing to risk harm or ridicule to stand up for what [she] believe[d] in when [she] perform[ed] [her] work,” not just to teach them to read aloud their own work.
She said her goal was to “emphasize the ways cancel culture and online vitriol disrupt real dialogue about change” and believed with a campus this dynamic, with students “so brilliant, protecting each other by standing together is how we defeat tyranny.”
Prince said, “The most memorable part of Convocation was the multilingual reading. It was a true representation of what our campus strives to be: diverse, inclusive and expansive. It was powerful to hear the music of every language emphasizing the dream Dr. King had for us; it reminded me that the fight is long from over, though.”
Prince explained that this year’s multilingual reading of Dr. King’s speech included the most languages she’s seen while teaching here.
Bilal Abdelnabi ‘27 read “Reflections on Prophet Muhammad’s Final Sermon”; Kayla Reed ‘26 and Kai Knight ‘27 sang “Life Will Be” by Cleo Soul; and Forest Mollica ‘29 read “Prayer for Peace” by Amy Kopkin Atkins.