Welcome to a New Semester

Dear Members of the Wake Forest Community: 

Happy New Year! The first day of fall semester classes – no matter how we pass the summer months — always feels like a new beginning. With it comes energy, excitement, and a host of new opportunities, as well as cherished moments to reconnect with friends and colleagues and settle into familiar routines. 

To our newest students, welcome home. We are thrilled you have joined our learning community. Please know that your faculty, staff, and peers are here to help you find your place, belong, and thrive at Wake Forest.  

To our faculty and staff who have arrived here in recent months, and to the newest members of the University’s leadership team, welcome! It is exciting to have you as part of our collegial, caring community of scholars and professionals who dedicate themselves to Wake Forest’s academic and research missions, and to our Pro Humanitate motto.  

As we enter a new semester together, I encourage each of you to: 

• Embrace our community of learning: Nurture your sense of curiosity, in and out of the classroom, and in your work. 
• Enrich our community of inquiry: Share the knowledge you create with each other, and engage with differing and diverse perspectives to inform your own.
• Engage our community of partnerships: Honor our commitment to the wellbeing of our local, regional, and global communities as you bring your unique strengths and talents to bear in your education, teaching, research, and professional experiences. 

I also invite you to engage with me again this year: Come to a Gold and Black Chat (students) or a Wednesdays with Wente lunch (faculty and staff), and subscribe to my blog, From Wente’s Desk, for monthly updates. And please save the date for my annual Presidential Address to the campus community on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 4 p.m. 

I am especially looking forward to hearing your thoughts about the University’s Strategic Framework, which you will receive via email on Thursday. This living document builds on our strong foundation and will guide us in charting our course together for Wake Forest’s third century. 

I wish you success, fulfillment, and new discoveries as this new academic year begins. 

Sincerely, 

Susan R. Wente
President
Distinguished Professor of Biology and Biochemistry