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Helpful Advice

When Patricia Lopes Harris, a member of Washington and Lee University’s Class of 1991, began preparing the Convocation speech she will deliver at her alma mater this evening, Wednesday, Sept. 8, at 5:30 p.m., she dug into her own family’s history. And, in a probable first for a Convocation speaker, she also turned to Facebook.

W&L’s Convocation greets the new first-year students and marks the final year for the undergraduate seniors and the law third-year students. Faced with the task of offering useful advice to the 472 first-year students of the Class of 2014, Pat, the media relations director at San Jose State University, in California, reviewed the road that brought her from Hawaii to Virginia. And through her Facebook page, the Rhodes Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa graduate asked W&L classmates, friends, acquaintances and colleagues for advice they would offer to a brand-new college student.

To Convocation and hear Pat’s speech, check the live feed on the W&L website today. And to read the bonus, Facebook-only supplement to her speech, go to Washington and Lee’s Facebook page.