Stetson University Trustee Amy R. Rigdon ’05, ’08 JD, arrived at Stetson with the intent of pursuing a double major in Psychology and French. Little did she know that a Religious Studies Department class called “Introduction to the Bible as Literature” would forever change her path.

“Folks, I fell in love,” she said. “Not with a person, but with an entire department.”

After taking several religious studies courses, Rigdon eventually dropped Psychology altogether and declared Religious Studies as her double major.

“Try on many different hats,” she said to students, faculty, staff, alumni and guests during her keynote address at Convocation on Wednesday, August 21.  “Choosing to attend college is more than just a decision about where you will spend the next few years; it’s a declaration that you believe in your potential and are ready to invest in yourself.”

This mentality was exactly what moved Rigdon to join the Women’s Varsity Crew team, after eyeing a “beautiful long, skinny white boat” in front of the Carlton Union Building when she arrived as a first-year student, knowing nothing about the sport or what it entailed.

“I want you to embrace being a Hatter,” said Rigdon, who is a partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm where she specializes in investment funds. “I want you to feel, viscerally, the power you have starting in this very moment to discover, to try, to challenge, to shine, to fail — but don’t worry, you’ll rebound — and to be you. 

“College is not just a place for academic learning, it’s the place for discovering who you are, who you want to be, and who you will become,” added Rigdon, who also is a J. Ollie Edmunds Distinguished Scholar. “Your life will change, and you will change along with it, so this is the moment and opportunity to try all the ‘hats’ to know yourself more fully now, which will guide the changes.”

Amidst a display of green and white lights that illuminated the newly remodeled Edmunds Center, Provost Elizabeth Skomp, PhD, welcomed everyone to formally start the 2024-2025 academic year.

“Opening Convocation represents the coming together of the Stetson University community to celebrate a new academic year, to welcome the newest members of our community and to embrace our values and our mission — 141 years following our founding,” she said.

Prior to the conclusion of the ceremony, Katya Kudryavtseva, PhD, associate professor of Art History and recipient of Stetson’s 2024 McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching, shared her words with the Stetson community.

“The beauty of Stetson lies in precisely this: that one can be different, whether you are naturally exuberant or a bit more reserved, and still feel at home here,” said Kudryavtseva, who also acts as curator of the Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection at the Hand Art Center. “This is a place where diversity in thought, expression and personality is not just tolerated but celebrated and welcomed, … and that’s what makes this place vibrant. …

“This environment of respectful disagreement and diverse thought is what prepares us not just to engage with the world beyond these walls but to survive and, hopefully, thrive in it in meaningful ways,” she added.

Soul of Stetson

Also at Convocation, Amy Gipson, associate vice president of development and communications, took attendees on a brief trip back to 1979, as she touched on how an avalanche on the ski slopes of Mt. Seegrube in Innsbruck, Austria, took the lives of three students during a study abroad trip. Over the past year, alumni sharing their stories from that time spurred the creation of the “Remembering Innsbruck” documentary as well as an alumni-led grassroots campaign to historically reconstruct Hulley Tower.

“I want to talk to you today about big things,” she said. “Courage, hope and fear. Love, loss and gratitude. Joy, tragedy, and resilience. That’s a lot of heavy stuff, I know, and it’s difficult to disentangle these things from each other, and that’s okay. That’s life. But if we allow them the space, these emotions and experiences can all create something remarkable. Something of defining and immeasurable value.”

Out of these efforts to remember our past as a university and rebuild Hulley Tower as a symbol of the “best within us” emerged the broader Soul of Stetson movement, which speaks to our values at Stetson and how our network of alumni is an integral part of our culture.   

“The Soul of Stetson is who we are, the spirit of community and the care we have for each other,” she said. “It has been here all along. What I will tell you now is that what started out as a story about a tragedy within our Stetson family has turned into so much more. This is your story too. It belongs to all of us, together.”

– Andrea Mujica