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More than 3,300 new students have enrolled at UML for the new school year, and many of them were seated in the Tsongas Center Tuesday morning to hear advice and be welcomed to their next chapter in life by former students, current students and UML leadership.<\/p>\n
Gavin Robillard, a business administration major from Leominster and the UML Student Government Association president, told the crowd of students about his experience being a first-generation college student, and the responsibility that comes with being a student in general.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why, once I got here, I realized I wasn\u2019t just doing it for myself, I also had a responsibility to family, to friends and others like me who weren\u2019t sure if they belonged in college,\u201d said Robillard. \u201cThat is when I began to understand something important, not just in college, but in life: the power of being a role model. You never know who is watching \u2026 You might inspire someone to do something new, or to do more than they thought they could.\u201d<\/p>\n
UML Chancellor Julie Chen gave the new college students a little advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you will share a lot with each other, remember that each of your journeys is your own, and you will discover a way to bring what you learn in the classroom beyond the classroom,\u201d said Chen.<\/p>\n
Chen touted the university\u2019s \u201ccareer-connected experiences,\u201d and promised that each student in the Class of 2029 would be guaranteed a paid or credited career-connected experience before they graduate.<\/p>\n
The keynote speaker for the convocation was William Lefebvre, of Leominster, a graduate from the university\u2019s sustainability program from the Class of 2024. Lefebvre had represented UML in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, during the 2023 United Nations Framework Convention Center on Climate Change, and after graduating he took a position as an environmental scientist with Weston & Sampson Engineers Inc., with which he completed a co-op as a student. As it happens, Lefebvre works in the company\u2019s location on the UML campus as part of the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor.<\/p>\n
Lefebvre called the UML student body \u201cone of a kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut let\u2019s be real for a moment, the world you are stepping into feels tumultuous. Uncertainty, fear, doubt and struggle are everywhere, and yet you\u2019ve already lived through enormous challenges \u2014 COVID, political division, challenges and deciding what is next after high school,\u201d said Lefebvre. \u201cYou have been making hard choices without clear outcomes for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges in the world, Lefebvre said UML \u201cdoesn\u2019t just talk about opportunity, it delivers it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom local projects here on campus to a global stage halfway across the world, UMass Lowell gave me the tools, the network and the confidence to step into spaces I never thought I\u2019d be in. And the same opportunities are waiting for you,\u201d said Lefebvre.<\/p>\n
After the close of the ceremony, and lunch, students attended the UML Engagement Fair to get introduced to some of the more than 250 extracurricular clubs and intramural sports teams offered to UML students.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 2, 2025 at 5:04 PM EDT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
LOWELL \u2014 UMass Lowell officially welcomed the Class of 2029 with a convocation ceremony at the Tsongas Center Tuesday morning as a new slate of freshman students prepares to begin classes this week. More than 3,300 new students have enrolled at UML for the new school year, and many of them were seated in the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/UMass-Lowell-welcomes-the-Class-of-2029.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions\/879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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