Convocation Speakers Urge Mars Hill University Students to Move Mountains

August 21, 2018

“Our world needs you, faculty, students, staff. We need writers. We need newspaper people. We need chemists. We need reporters. Dancers, actors, doctors, teachers. We need coaches.” Those words from Mars Hill University President Tony Floyd helped formally kick off the 2018-19 academic year during opening convocation in Moore Auditorium on Tuesday, August 21.

New university provost, John Omachonu, welcomed students. “Although it’s only my second week at Mars Hill,” Omachonu told them, “I discovered already that I made the right decision to be here. I hope you have, also. Are you ready to begin your journey?”

Marc Mullinax, religion professor and chair of the faculty, helped bring to life the university’s theme of “education that moves mountains.” Mullinax said, “In other words, we dream the impossible and turn those dreams into deeds. So many of our dreams, at first, seem impossible. And then, maybe, they seem improbable. And then they become, maybe, inevitable.”

In his keynote address, Floyd spoke of the importance of a liberal arts education, and conveyed to the audience his enthusiasm for the days ahead, as he begins his first year at the university’s helm. “As we all take up this fight, as we all push to graduate these students, as we all push to leave here and make a difference in the world, I’m so optimistic; I’m so hopeful,” he said. “We’re in this together. Mars Hill is going to pull together. We’re going to fight together, and we’re going to climb mountains together.”

The convocation ceremony also featured special music by student Connor Dalton of Arden, North Carolina, and the inauguration of Student Government Association officers, led by 2018-19 student body president Kyler Kee of Bessemer City, North Carolina.