Convocation
Wednesday, August 19, 11:00 a.m.
Convocation signifies the formal opening of the 2026-2027 academic year and will be held in the Insight Credit Union Arena, at Edmunds Center. All students, faculty, and staff are asked to participate. Cultural Credit will be available.
First-Year and New Transfer Students: FOCUS groups will walk together to the Edmunds Center following the morning meeting. Designated floor seating will be available.
Returning Students: Designated raised seating will be available and grouped by graduating class year.
Staff: Designated raised seating will be available in the center section.
Faculty: Gather in the Wilson Athletic Center by 10:40 a.m. wearing academic regalia. Faculty Marshals will lead the formal processional to the Edmunds Center beginning at 10:55 a.m.
All attendees are invited to wear their Western-style hats manufactured by the Stetson Hat Company to show their Hatter spirit. Hats can be purchased online or in-store from the DeLand Campus Bookstore.
Community Lunch Following the Ceremony
Following the ceremony, please join us for a community lunch in the Lynn Dining Commons and the Warren and Barbara Carr Stetson Room.
All Stetson faculty, staff and students will be asked to provide their Stetson ID for entry. *Lunch is complimentary.
Alumni Keynote Speaker
Junior Nyong’o, ’17
Junior is an actor, musician, and DJ. Born and raised beneath the equatorial blue skies of Nairobi, Kenya, he moved to the United States to continue pursuing his artistic passions. He earned a BA in Theatre Studies and Digital Arts from Stetson University (Class of 2017) before completing his MFA in Acting at UC San Diego (Class of 2023).
At the heart of Junior’s work is a deep love of language and stories with emotional depth. He has performed on regional theatre stages across the United States, where each role has further shaped his artistic curiosity. From the uneasy melancholy of Hamlet to the swaggering machismo of Dally in The Outsiders musical, his work continually explores the intersections of language, masculinity, heritage, and identity. Most recently, he appeared in the 2025 summer production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park in New York. He is now based in Melbourne, Australia, where he continues to build a multidisciplinary creative practice.
Living in Southern California naturally sparked a love of surfing and a lasting connection to the ocean. A lifelong athlete and sports enthusiast, Junior sees movement as both play and medicine. When he isn’t on stage or in front of a camera, he can usually be found surfing, playing football or basketball, lifting weights, dancing, cycling, or simply going on long walks in nature. Junior’s exuberance for life is grounded in a deep love for humanity and connection, both inward and outward. Whether performing, making music, or behind the decks, his creative work is rooted in questions of home, identity, and belonging, and in a belief in the transformative power of meeting one another with openness, generosity, and love.
2026 McEniry Recipient Address
Randall Croom, PhD, Associate Professor of Management
Randall Croom is an Associate Professor of Management at Stetson University. He earned his doctorate from the University of Florida after completing both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration from Florida A&M University.
Prior to doctoral studies, Randall Croom worked in private industry in product management for a life sciences company and in distribution management for a Fortune 100 retailer after completing undergraduate and graduate work at the Sybil C. Mobley School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M University. His primary research interests include investigating how individual differences, especially personality, influence human performance.
Secondarily, Croom is also interested in performance management, personal development, career management, personnel selection, compensation, and a wide variety of other areas of management research. The recipient of the KPMG PhD Project Promising Young Educator Award, Croom is passionate about innovation in instruction and helping students connect theory to practice.