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Three alumni to receive honorary degrees at Opening Convocation

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Aug. 29, 2008 – Colorado College will welcome more than 550 new first-year students at its Opening Convocation at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 1 at Shove Memorial Chapel, 1010 N. Nevada Ave. The ceremony marks the beginning of Colorado College’s 135th academic year.

The Opening Convocation ceremony begins with faculty members, dressed in their academic robes, marching into Shove Memorial Chapel from the quadrangle directly west of the chapel. Colorado College’s approximately 1,985 students will begin classes at 10:30 a.m., immediately after the ceremony.

Aaron Shure, a 1988 graduate of Colorado College, two-time Emmy Award winner, television writer and producer of such shows as "Everybody Loves Raymond," will be the keynote speaker. The well-known television comedy writer will present the Opening Convocation speech, titled “I’ll Try to Be Quick: A Few Words Before You Start the Best Four Years of Your Life.”

Shure is one of three alumni to be presented with honorary degrees at CC’s Opening Convocation; he will receive a doctor of humane letters degree. Cynthia Chavez, who graduated in 1992 and is now director of the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, N.M., will receive a doctor of humane letters degree. Randall Edwards, a 1983 CC graduate, elected state political leader in Oregon for 12 years and currently Oregon’s state treasurer, will receive a doctor of laws degree.

A record 5,328 students applied to Colorado College this year, with only 26 percent being admitted, down from 32 percent last year. Of those, 23 percent of the class self-identified themselves as a member of an American ethnic minority group, up from 18 percent last year, and four percent are international students. Additionally, 27 percent of the incoming class was in the top 1 percent of their high school class, and 55 percent were in the top 5 percent of their high school class.

The class of 2012 includes:

• A student who is ranked third in the world in jump rope competitions
• A student who is a master at Confucius Rap; another who sang the National Anthem at Fenway Park
• A student who served as a counselor at a peace camp for orphans and refugees of the Balkan War
• A student who bicycled from Argentina to New York
• More than 300 students who have completed the highest level of a language offered at their high school
• At least 15 students who speak three or more languages
• Students who have studied or become fluent in 19 languages, including Latin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese and SiSwati
• A student who is in the U.S. National Top 10 for competitive synchronized swimming
• More than 200 students who served as athletic captains during their high school careers

First-year students arrived on Aug. 23 and participated in a week of orientation activities, which culminated in a variety of community-service and wilderness trips throughout the region. The 55 new-student orientation trips included opportunities to plant native trees with Forest Guardian in New Mexico; work at an organic apple and peach farm in Paonia; assist at La Puente Home in the San Luis Valley; and work at the Koshare Indian Museum in La Junta. The majority of the backcountry trips also had a service component, with students working on trail maintenance.

About Colorado College
Colorado College is a nationally prominent, four-year liberal arts college that was founded in Colorado Springs in 1874. The college operates on the innovative Block Plan, in which its 1,985 undergraduate students study one course at a time in intensive 3½-week blocks. The college also offers a master of arts in teaching degree. For more information, visit www.ColoradoCollege.edu <http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu>.