President Fitts welcomes Class of 2030 with World Cup spirit and ‘Lasso lessons’ at Convocation

The Class of 2030 kicked off its Tulane journey Sunday afternoon at the 2026 President's Convocation for New Students with sportsmanship, lessons from a beloved television coach and a jubilant New Orleans second line. Held in Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse, the ceremony was the culmination of Hullabaloo Hello, Tulane's week-long welcome for first-year and transfer students.

Master of Ceremonies Sarah Pachon, a senior in the Class of 2027, opened the program by introducing one of the first Green Wave traditions new students would experience. As the Tulane University Marching Band performed the Alma Mater, gonfalons bearing the colors of Tulane's five undergraduate schools entered the arena. Pachon explained that those very same gonfalons would lead the procession of students at their Unified Commencement ceremony.

Tulane Trailblazer and alumnus Dr. Michael White led the Original Liberty Jazz Band and the platform party through the crowd as Anneliese Singh, associate provost for faculty development and chief officer for academic excellence and opportunity, presented an invocation for the event. Then, Tulane President Michael A. Fitts took to the podium.

Fitts compared the students' college experience to the FIFA World Cup. Much like the athletes from around the globe who visited the United States earlier this summer, the Class of 2030 had arrived at Tulane from near and far, Fitts said, ready to pursue "the best trophy of all": a Tulane diploma.

"Like the teams in the World Cup, you don't have to be perfect, and you don't have to win every match," Fitts said. "You just have to focus on advancing."

Drawing inspiration from the hit television show "Ted Lasso," Fitts offered three lessons for navigating the "tournament" ahead. First, "Be curious, not judgmental." He urged students to ask questions when classmates see the world through a different lens, noting that curiosity strengthens Tulane's interdisciplinary culture and fosters an environment where academic excellence thrives.

Fitts pointed to recent graduate, Tulane 34 Award recipient Autumn Sommers, who fostered civil dialogue through leadership roles during her time at Tulane, including serving as one of the first members of the Ethics Bowl team. The team competes nationally and guides local high school students in conducting respectful, rigorous discussions about critical issues. Sommers is now a congressional intern in Washington, D.C., working for a fellow Tulane alum.

Fitts' second lesson - "Be the goldfish" - challenged students to have a short memory for mistakes and quickly move on from them. Fitts shared the story of Paresh Kolluru, a student whose initial rejection from Phi Delta Epsilon, a selective premedical association, did not stop him from reapplying. Not only was Kolluru accepted the following year, he went on to become president of Tulane's chapter and earn the Tulane 34 Award himself before graduating and entering medical school.

Fitts cited Kolluru's experience to demonstrate the value of moving forward after a setback.

"Newcomb-Tulane College has all the resources you need to keep you on the path to your trophy. And Tulane's supportive, relational community will cheer you on every step of the way - even when you stumble," Fitts said.

Fitts' final lesson for the students was to believe in themselves and one another. He highlighted Madeline "Dylan" Murray, the student speaker at the 2026 Unified Commencement who co-founded the biotechnology startup Exactics during her sophomore year after transferring to Tulane. Murray and her teammates developed an at-home rapid test for Lyme disease with support from Tulane National Biomedical Research Center researcher Monica Embers and are expanding their work to other infectious diseases.

After reminding the newest members of the Tulane community that success may look different than they expect, Fitts revealed a "Fitts '30" soccer jersey worn underneath his academic robe. "I believe in you, Class of 2030," he told the crowd, before encouraging them to sing along to the marching band's rendition of "Country Roads," the "unofficial anthem this summer," as Fitts put it.

Fitts was followed by Newcomb-Tulane College Dean Mollye Demosthenidy, who advised the students to say "yes" to new opportunities before they felt ready to tackle them and let the questions and ideas they could not stop thinking about guide them toward their purposes in life.

Invoking Tulane's motto, "Non sibi sed suis," or "Not for oneself but for one's own," she challenged them to measure success by the relationships they foster, the communities they build and the lives they change.

"When we say 'one's own,' we consider the local and global community to be our own, both here in New Orleans and across the world," Demosthenidy said.

For the final send-off, students reached under their seats to find plain white second-line umbrellas. The newest Tulanians were invited to decorate the parasols over the course of their Tulane years and bring them to Unified Commencement, where they will second line out of Caesars Superdome at the conclusion of the ceremony.

Marking the start of that tradition, Dr. Michael White and the Original Liberty Jazz Band led the new Tulanians out of the arena in their first second line as Tulane students - a joyful beginning to the journey ahead.