“LET THE JOY SINK IN!”

“Can you feel it? Can you hear it?’ ose were the words StFX President Dr. Andy Hakin asked just under 1,000 students, clad in black robes, sitting in the Keating Centre on December 3, 2022 about to receive their much-anticipated X-Ring. ere’s a crackle in the room, a buzz, Dr. Hakin said. “It’s called excitement. It’s called X-Ring Day. You’re here. But it’s also the Feast of St. Francis Xavier.”

St. Francis Xavier was a bit of a traveler. He went on journeys, and he made a di erence, he said.

“What a journey you’ve had,” Dr. Hakin told students as thousands watched the livestreamed ceremony from Wisconsin to British Columbia, North Carolina to Ottawa, while parent viewing rooms were set up on campus. Not only have you been on a tremendous academic journey, your journey has allowed you to experience community, to be in a place where we learn to be with each other, where we learn to understand di erences, where we learn that we’re not always right, where we learn to be a good citizen, and we learn to give back.

STEP IN, STEP UP

Guest speaker Dr. Tania Sullivan ’98, Emergency Medicine Physician Lead at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, also encouraged the senior class to keep these Xaverian values close as they journey forward.

Dr. Sullivan said when people ask for advice on becoming a doctor, the only thing she keeps coming back to is “be the best you.

“My point is there is no right path to what you want. ere is simply the one you, and only you, can make. Be the best you. Be relentless and be authentic.”

Talking about her life as an ER doctor and stepping in as the St. Martha’s COVID lead, she spoke about what it was like to be on the front lines and what it was like to be part of a larger community who worked together to maneuver through these di cult times. “It is about showing up, instead of giving up,” Dr. Sullivan told the students.

Dr. Sullivan also spoke about moving on versus moving forward. e pandemic highlighted many injustices, and we cannot move on from this. “We must move forward.”

She challenged students to commit to moving forward as stewards of doing better. “We are here today and coming out the other side… because we were willing to be in it together.”

Let The Joy Sink In

Renee MacLeod, co-president of the Senior Class, encouraged classmates to stand up and “to let the joy sink in.” StFX, she said, is a place like no other, where you feel a sense of community, where you learn to build compassion for others, where you’re shaped into leaders. “I’ve grown in more ways than I thought possible, and so have all of you.”

Fellow Senior Class co-president Ryder Ferris served as master of ceremonies. He announced this year’s Senior Class Gi , the UneXpected Relief Fund, will help support students who experience unexpected crisis.

In a touching moment, the honorary X-Ring went to Andrew Beckett, the recently retired StFX Vice-President Finance & Administration.