Joe Welsh

New Linfield University students move in Thursday to the McMinnville campus, with Opening Convocation set for 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 26 in Ted Wilson Gymnasium.

Linfield alumnus Joseph Welsh ’96 will present this year’s convocation speech titled, “It does, in fact, matter where you start … ” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Welsh is the product of a Linfield education. He majored in finance and took full advantage of the liberal arts curriculum. Welsh was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and an assistant basketball coach. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he went to work for Intel Corporation. His work took him and his family around the world, including a two-year stint in Shanghai and four years in Taiwan. After 21 years at Intel, Welsh accepted a role as senior sales director for Samsung Semiconductor. He met his partner, Stephanie ’95, at Linfield, who he later married. Together they have three children, the oldest of whom attends Linfield.

Convocation is the traditional ceremony that celebrates the beginning of the new academic year. Classes at Linfield begin Monday, Aug. 29. Linfield University President Miles K. Davis will preside over the ceremony, which features special performances by Linfield music faculty and staff as well as the university’s tradition of the acorn.

Started in 2012, the tradition of the acorn began to connect students with the legacy of Linfield’s most beloved symbols – the Old Oak. Undergraduate students receive a single acorn during Opening Convocation of their first year. At commencement, students deposit their acorns back into a large bowl made from the wood of the Old Oak. Each acorn is then given to another first-year student at the following year’s convocation.