It was just shy of four years ago, that vast canopies of oak trees engulfed the skies above unfamiliar, wide-eyed faces during Fall Convocation. In the midst of nervousness, excitement and confusion, each student from the Elon University Class of 2014 received an acorn, a gift that 18 classes of students before them also received.
This is the tradition inspired by Furman Moseley, a graduate of the Class of 1956 and a Californian entrepreneur in the timber industry.
In his 1991 commencement address, Moseley gave each graduate a redwood sapling to symbolize the importance of growth through hard work. Recognizing the value behind the idea, President Fred Young established the practice as a tradition the next year, swapping redwood trees to oak trees. President Leo Lambert later completed the tradition by giving the acorn to new freshmen.
Staying faithful to Elon’s 23-year-old tradition, this commencement day, the now-graduates will receive a sapling, a reflection of their growth, achievement and intellectual nourishment. Just like the graduates, each sapling has its own story. Each seed sprouted at its own pace and faced its own challenges, but all saplings collectively survived an epic journey of growth.
As the graduates bid Elon farewell, they will find themselves in familiar seats, filled with similar sentiments but possessing a newfound development, sense of accomplishment and vision for the future. The saplings and the graduates will travel far, and though they will plant their roots elsewhere, their collective foundations will be rooted in their hearts as they continue growing parallel to one another.
Rachel Southmayd, a member of the Class of 2013, planted her sapling in a pot on her balcony, right next to her fiance David Campbell’s sapling.
“Receiving our saplings was a lot like getting our acorns. The first thing on your mind is, ‘Now that I’ve been given this thing, this symbol, what do I do with it?’ For us, the answer both times was, ‘Treasure it,’” she said. “This was Elon’s gift to us, much like our Elon education, and we take the responsibility of caring for our trees and the lessons Elon taught us very seriously.”
These saplings, although ordinary plants, are gateways for alumni to return to their alma mater. They are a reminder of their former selves and the changes they have undergone since Elon. As such, they are cherished.
“Two days after graduation, I went to a nursery to get instructions on how to care for our trees and just last week, we transplanted them from their ‘starter pots’ to larger ones to allow them to continue to grow on our balcony of our apartment until we move somewhere permanent,” she said. “Today, the trees have gotten taller, and like us, they stand on their own better now than they did a year ago.”
Other saplings have traveled to various corners of the nation — including the sandy beaches of California.
Dan Quackenbush, ‘13, had a classmate ship his sapling to him in Santa Monica Pier.
“Because of all the separation anxiety and nostalgia that recent grads feel after leaving Elon, it’s nice to have a strong reminder of where you came from and everything that happened to bring you here,” he said. “I would say that the person that I was when I first came to Elon is far from the person that I am now, the same way that a sapling is far from the acorn that it started as.”
Other sapling stories have not been as successful. Elizabeth Neirch, ‘13, lost her sapling to the blades of a lawn mower.
“The morning after I had planted him in a plot near my house, I was outside and saw that he had been viciously cut down. And by viciously, I mean the gardener hadn’t even noticed my little sapling that took four years to get, and he got mauled by the blades of the lawn mower,” she said. “Hopefully the rumors aren’t true that where you plant your seedlings points to what your future holds.”
While the prospects of Nerich suffering a similar fate are slim, she said she believes planting the sapling helped quell her nostalgia.
“I planted it because I had a major case of graduation blues,” she said. “I spent four years at Elon, and after I had packed up my house and said goodbye to some of my best friends, I really wanted to have a way to stay connected to Elon.”
Tyler West, who graduated in 2011, gave his sapling to his grandmother as he believed her green thumb would be able to provide the nourishment that it needed.
“I knew she’d take good care of it. She planted it outside her kitchen window so she could keep an eye on it,” West said. “She staked it, waters it, takes pictures of it. I guarantee it’s been nurtured more than any other Elon oak tree.”
West, who has kept the acorn he received as a freshmen, said he never considered throwing such symbolically important gifts away.
“I never throw anything away. The gifts are lasting souvenirs of my time at Elon,” he said. “The sapling is taller than me now, but it still has a lot of growing to do. And I suppose that’s how I consider myself.”
Adam Constantine, Class of 2010, said he has never once regretted his decision to plant the sapling.
“Being able to see that sapling turn into a young oak was a surprisingly satisfying experience. Every time I come home, I see it and I can’t help but think about my time at Elon,” he said.
Constantine said his now eight-foot tall oak has grown with him through the challenges and successes that many alumni face after graduation.
“As silly as ‘growing alongside my sapling’ may sound, it really does reflect what after school life has been,” he said. “There are times where everything seems to be budding with potential. Then there are times where it seems nothing is going right and your life seems to just go dormant. However, no matter how many trials you go through, you keep getting stronger, keep growing taller and dig your roots further into the ground.”