Dear Class of 2025,
Welcome to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill! We are so excited for you to join our community.
All of us have experienced a year of upheaval and a year of change. You have had to adapt and transition to new environments, and as you come to Chapel Hill, you will meet new people, have new experiences and visit new places.
While your first semester will resemble a typical fall at Carolina, with many of the challenges of COVID-19 behind us, it will still be uncharted territory. All of us have been changed in some way by the pandemic. How we respond to those changes is up to us. As the first-year class, you’ll have an important role in determining how we adjust to the return of living and learning on campus this year.
No matter what challenges we face, our mission will always be the same. We have a responsibility to serve the people of North Carolina, the nation and the world through our teaching, research and service. We seek to prepare the next generation of leaders and take on the grand challenges of our time.
We take our role as public servants seriously. You have a responsibility to take the knowledge, skills and perspectives that you will gain during your time here and give back, in some way, to our global community. Look at a list of Carolina alumni and you’ll see people who have made a difference — left their heelprint, as we say — somewhere across the world. I have no doubt that their time at Carolina played an important role in developing and shaping their lives.
Someday that will be you. But for now, enjoy the moment. Look forward to all the opportunities ahead of you — to learn from our world-class faculty, hang out on the Quad or at the Pit, cheer on our athletic teams and make lifelong friends. Make the most of it.
I look forward to meeting you and seeing you around campus. Welcome to your new Carolina home.
Go Heels!
