HWS News
21 August 2026 Convocation 2026 Begins Academic Year
HWS community members to offer reflections on opportunities in the year ahead.
The 2026-27 academic year will officially open with Convocation on Sunday, Aug. 30, bringing students, faculty and staff together to celebrate the start of a new year of learning, discovery and engagement.
Held at 4:30 p.m. on Stern Lawn, Convocation is one of HWS’ signature academic traditions and an opportunity for the community to consider the intellectual journey ahead. This year’s program will feature perspectives from faculty, alumni and student leaders whose experiences span scientific research, the energy industry, nonprofit leadership and public service.
President Mark D. Gearan will welcome the HWS community and mark the beginning of the new academic year.
Senior Associate Dean Kelly Payne will offer remarks. Payne, who joined HWS in 2018, advises and mentors students through the Office of the Deans and works closely with the Laurel and Hai Timiai honor societies and the Laurel Connections mentorship program.
She will be followed by an invocation from Chaplain and Dean for Spiritual Engagement Rev. Nita Byrd.
Representing the faculty will be Susan Flanders Cushman ’98, whose research examines ecological questions across scales ranging from watersheds and communities to populations and individual organisms. Focusing primarily on stream ecosystems in the Finger Lakes region, Cushman studies benthic macroinvertebrates, fish and water quality.
Two members of the Class of 2007 will return to campus to offer alumni perspectives.
Paul Wasmund ’07, director at E Source, is an experienced leader in the energy industry and a member of the HWS Board of Trustees. He previously served as president of the Hobart Alumni Association.
Jane Erickson ’07, principal of Jane Erickson Consulting, has built a career focused on philanthropy and social impact, including previous roles with the Rippel Foundation and Clinton Foundation. A former HWS trustee, Erickson also served as president of the William Smith Alumnae Association.
Offering the student perspective will be Ela Gardiner ’27, president of HWS Student Government. Her remarks come as The Princeton Review recently ranked HWS No. 10 in the nation for “Most Active Student Government.”
Gardiner spent the summer in Washington, D.C. through the Frelinghuysen Assembly Internship Program, which provides HWS students with fully funded internships, housing and professional development opportunities in the nation’s capital. She held a communications internship at the New Democrat Coalition.
In the event of rain, the Convocation ceremony will be held in Bristol Gym.
