Stetson’s annual Convocation is set to take place in the Insight Credit Union Arena at Edmunds Center on Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 11 a.m., with exciting speakers slated to join the stage.

This year’s keynote speaker is none other than Junior Nyong’o ’17, MFA, a multi-talented actor and musician with a global artistic footprint. Randall Croom, PhD, an associate professor of Management, will also be addressing the audience as the recipient of the 2026 McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching.

All students, faculty and staff are asked to participate. Cultural Credit will be available. Attendees are invited to don their Stetson hats, which can be purchased online or in-store from the campus Bookstore.

A complimentary community lunch will be provided in the Lynn Dining Commons following the ceremony. Faculty, staff and students will be asked to present their Stetson ID for entry.

Alumnus Keynote Speaker

Nyong’o brings a fresh perspective to Convocation as a working creative artist, an actor and musician navigating the highly competitive landscape of Hollywood and the global entertainment industry at large.

His first brush with the spotlight came in 2014, when he appeared in a viral, star-studded selfie taken at the Academy Awards while attending the ceremony with his older sister, Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o. A little more than a decade later, he’s grown into a seasoned actor in his own right, playing opposite his sister in an Off-Broadway production of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in 2025.

Nyong’o credits his Stetson education for laying a solid foundation for his blooming acting career. As a Theatre Arts major, he received close mentorship from faculty members Krista Franco, MFA, and Julia Schmitt, PhD.

“[Franco] got me my first audition for her theater company. I didn’t get the role, but still, just getting that experience to audition, especially over the summer, was super valuable,” he said. Schmitt “planted the seed” for his interest in Shakespeare, Nyong’o continued, adding, “All the theater professors would just treat you as if you belonged in those spaces already.”

Stetson’s liberal arts education also set him up for success by exposing him to diverse cultures, subjects and perspectives. From playing soccer on the Stetson soccer team with international teammates to taking classes as varied as religious studies, astronomy and Russian, Nyong’o took full advantage of what the intimate DeLand campus has to offer — and, in his keynote speech, that’s exactly what he plans to urge Hatters to do during their time at Stetson.

Born and raised in Kenya and educated in the U.S., Nyong’o is now establishing his footing anew in Melbourne, Australia, where he recently moved with his partner. Aptly, his Convocation speech will also be about how “life is constantly asking us to begin again in some ways — that we’re always first years in many ways.”

2026 McEniry Award Winner

This year, Croom is the William Hugh McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching recipient. Considered the university’s most prestigious faculty honor, it is based on the “highest attainment of teaching excellence as personified by Dean McEniry,” whose academic leadership post-World War II is credited with elevating Stetson’s academics and prestige.

In his research, Croom focuses on how individual differences affect human performance. He is also interested in a wide range of topics in management research, such as performance management, personnel selection and compensation. Most recently, he co-authored a research paper studying how athletes in the National Football League experienced differing consequences following criminal arrests depending on individual performance and whether their organizations were undergoing “watershed events,” influencing the enforcement of disciplinary action.

Croom is also the director of Stetson’s newly established Business Fellows program, which will be welcoming its inaugural cohort in the 2026-2027 academic year. The Fellows receive targeted support for research, internship, study abroad and other academic or professional activities, including a $2,000 award per year for three years.

-Siyon Kim