A group of first-year students headlined the annual convocation, “Building Community through Storytelling: First-Year Storytellers,” on Wednesday. The stories originate as a part of the required first-year course, “Identity, Culture and Community.” There were five featured storytellers: Jacob Shenk, a biochemistry major; Ana Ochoa Gomez, a biology and history pre-law major; Amelia Faulkner, an elementary education major; Em Gilmer, a marine biology major; and Timothy Okiror, a computer science and engineering physics major. 

Jody Saylor, the director of faculty development and academic innovation, organized the convocation. She said that part of her role is to coordinate the ICC course, and this convocation exhibits the class’s capstone project. “I always appreciate the vulnerability that it takes to share a truly honest story with a bunch of strangers,” Saylor said.

Shenk’s story was one of self-discovery and growth through experimentation. He described his middle school memories of uncertainty before eventually moving to public school and finding his niche within the choral and theater programs by the end of his senior year. Shenk said he wished he could have told his younger self: “You are an incredible person right now. No exceptions.”

Ochoa Gomez took a different path with her story of emigration from Mexico to the United States as a young child. She described her feelings of uncertainty throughout the long drive towards her father, who had already arrived. Ochoa Gomez continued by explaining her struggles in school and with learning English, before slowly finding a place in the new society she was thrust into. She concluded with a statement of hope. “I think about how lost I felt and how far I’ve been able to come since then,” Ochoa Gomez said.

Faulkner, the third storyteller, shared about her experience of emotional pain through the specific story of breaking her wrist in seventh grade. She described the emotional pain of having an alcoholic father covering up the physical pain she was in after falling on the ice. 

Gilmer spoke on her experience of traveling to Europe for a summer program. Specifically, her struggle to climb a mountain through sickness and the feeling of pride and joy after scaling it.

The final speaker, Okiror, shared about his experience as a third-culture kid — someone who grew up somehow removed from the country they were raised in. He moved from Uganda to Russia to Chad, feeling like he was losing pieces of his identity every time. “I started to realize that maybe I wasn’t losing pieces of myself every time I moved,” Okiror said. “Maybe I was actually collecting them.” 

When asked about their experience of sharing in front of the entire campus, both Shenk and Ochoa Gomez described it as nerve-wracking. 

As for the writing process, Ochoa Gomez said that she was initially unsure what to talk about because she believed her life was boring, before eventually landing on the impactful moment from her early life. 

Shenk added that he found the writing interesting because he didn’t remember every detail, so he was able to take some liberties with the specifics of different scenarios. 

With reporting by Mackenzie Miller