Welcome, Class of 2023: Rice matriculation ceremony concludes with a bang

Welcome ceremonies celebrating the first day of O-Week ended with a bang as the incoming Rice University Class of 2023 officially matriculated Aug. 18.

Lovett College freshmen file into Tudor Fieldhouse ahead of matriculation Aug. 18. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

After speeches in Tudor Fieldhouse delivered by Rice President David Leebron, Dean of Undergraduates Bridget Gorman, Student Association President Grace Wickerson and Association of Rice Alumni President Frank Jones ‘63, freshmen walked with their residential colleges to Lovett Hall and through the Sallyport — the traditional symbolic entrance into their new lives as Rice Owls.

“What a wonderful adventure you have begun,” Gorman said. “I am hopeful that each of you will embrace and enjoy the journey ahead. We are so pleased to have you here.”

The trio of speakers chosen for the evening, Gorman said, aimed to provide a broad range of perspectives on the students’ journey ahead of them at Rice, from president to students to alumni.

After extending an especially warm welcome to incoming transfer students and wishing two other students in the audience a happy birthday, Leebron took a moment to reflect on the historic nature of this year’s cohort of freshmen.

“We are thrilled and grateful you are here,” President David Leebron told the nearly 1,000 new students. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

“This class is certainly special, 967 students chosen from 27,000 applicants, and the first to benefit from our new financial aid program, The Rice Investment,” he said.

Before addressing the finer points of how to succeed in college, which ranged from getting enough sleep to remembering to call your mother on her birthday, Leebron delivered a 17-second version of his traditional welcome speech that he’s honed over the last 16 years.

“We are thrilled and grateful that you are here,” he said. “You should be thrilled and grateful to be here. Seize your opportunities, pursue your passions, get to know your classmates, don’t do stupid stuff, remember those who got you here and go change the world. Thank you and welcome to Rice.”

(Photos by Jeff Fitlow)

With the recent mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso fresh on Texans’ minds, his included, Leebron also took time to address the solemnity of the world Rice students will inherit and seek to change.

Student Association President Grace Wickerson shared their own story of finding their true self at Rice. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

“This year seems, to me, different,” he said. “A year that calls us to pause and contemplate not just our and your joy in being here and the high expectations we share but the troubled state we find in our world today.”

As they navigate both the world at large and the world of their brand-new college experience, Leebron suggested the students heed advice delivered at Rice’s 2017 commencement by Mae Jemison, the first black woman to travel in space: “Live deeply and look up.”

“Immerse yourself deeply in Rice and in your interests, passions and relationships,” Leebron said. “And then look up and engage in the world around you at Rice and Houston and across the world. And seek the interactions between these two things.”

Wickerson took the podium next to share the story of how O-Week has helped students overcome a fear of being their true selves — and how students can help themselves and others by accepting their own truths within each of them.

Will Rice students march toward the Sallyport after leaving Tudor Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

Three years ago, Wickerson was ready to leave small-town Florida, pursue a rigorous academic life at an elite university and embrace the diversity of big-city Houston — but was unsure about coming out as a queer, nonbinary person.

“But I knew I would never be happy hiding who I truly was,” Wickerson said. “So the first day of O-Week, I took that leap of faith and I came out to my O-Week group and said those words out loud: ‘I am gay.’ And when I was met not with rejection, but rather acceptance, I knew that I’d found (my) people.”

Wickerson encouraged the students to allow similar spaces in their lives to open up.

“Living authentically is hard, I know, because doing so means being open about the things that make you vulnerable,” Wickerson said. “But remember that all of those things are what shaped you into the person you are today, and that earned you your acceptance to Rice. The more that you embrace those parts of yourself, the stronger you will become and the more ready you will be to tackle all life’s challenges.”

Fireworks erupted as each residential college entered the Academic Quad through the Sallyport. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

Jones, a prominent Houston lawyer and the fifth of 14 family members to attend Rice, took the stage last. The former Baker College president and current president of the Rice Historical Society told the students he still recalls the feelings he had when he matriculated 60 years ago.

“Anxiety, apprehension, concern, loneliness and, yes, even excitement and anticipation,” Jones said. But the opportunities that lay ahead for students, he said, should be cause for nothing but celebration.

“In all these years, the one constant here at Rice is the quality and expansiveness of the experience and education, both within and outside the classroom,” he said. “And upon graduation, without having to do anything else, you’ll be a lifelong member of a very selective club that is close to 60,000 members: the Association of Rice Alumni.”

Following the speeches, students left Tudor Fieldhouse and walked along a candlelit Inner Loop toward the Sallyport. As each college approached the entryway to the Academic Quad, the crowd waiting on the other side fell completely silent, the better to hear the loud litany of screams and cheers for the new students as they passed through.

Martel College magisters Frank and Carrie Toffoletto led their new students through the Sallyport during matriculation. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

Overhead, as each college emerged through the Sallyport, 11 dazzling displays of fireworks exploded over the statue of Rice founder William Marsh Rice. A final 12th burst lit up the sky to signal the end of the evening’s official festivities. Then, it was off to the college commons for bonding activities and, eventually, bed.

According to Rice tradition, students should not pass back through the Sallyport in the direction of Founder’s Court until their day of graduation — otherwise, superstition holds they won’t graduate on time. It’s the first of many traditions these new Owls will learn during O-Week.

Coming to Rice from Brownsville, Texas, Duncan College freshman Tristan Alaniz was aware of a few of the evening’s matriculation traditions, but not all of them.

Fireworks lit up the night sky Aug. 18. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)

“This ceremony really left me with a chill,” Alaniz said. “I felt a wave of euphoria come over me as the fireworks went off and everyone was chanting for us. It makes me feel like I belong here.”

Jones College freshman Milan Chopra shared that sentiment.

“Today has been crazy,” Chopra said. “I’ve never really done anything like this before but everyone I’ve met today, everyone at Jones, everyone here at Rice, has been so welcoming. It feels like home already.”