New students packed Alumni Park on Thursday morning as an alum welcomed them to the University and gave them a warning he wished he knew before he started college: Don’t get too caught up with a plan.

“I came to USC certain that I needed to have it all figured out. I even had a 10-year plan. Study abroad in France. Go to law school. Build a career in politics. Life had other ideas,” said Edwin Saucedo, a 2016 graduate from the Price School of Public Policy.

Saucedo said that as a student, he struggled and wasn’t sure he belonged at USC; the path he thought he would follow didn’t work out the way he expected it to. He said it wasn’t until he started to talk to other students going through the same thing and found a community on campus that he was able to embrace his own unique journey.

“I never did go to law school, and today I work in sports. Not one of those things was part of my path, but every one of those doors opened because of a person, and I’m so grateful,” Saucedo said. “None of it happened the way I had planned. So have a plan, have ambition, dream ridiculously big. Just don’t get so attached to the life you planned that you miss the life that’s waiting for you.”

Student government leaders tell students to be a ‘villager’

Accepting life’s hurdles and finding community continued to be a prevalent theme throughout Thursday’s convocation. Syrabi Nur Rahman, the Undergraduate Student Government president, like Saucedo, arrived at USC wanting to be a lawyer; however, Rahman didn’t initially want to be at USC.

Growing up in Koreatown, Rahman said all she wanted was to go to school as far from home as possible. Now, as a senior, she said attending USC opened doors for her: She learned the value of exploring her surroundings, embodying the legacy of past Trojans and taking advantage of what the University has to offer.

“If I have any advice to leave you with today, it is to take … this chance to pursue your curiosities, run steadfast into your ambitions and bring your community alongside you,” Rahman said. “Because from here on out, you’re a Trojan, and that’s what we do.”

Graduate Student Government president Janielle Cuala followed Rahman’s speech, sharing a similar sentiment of embracing the unknown.

“You do not need everything figured out,” Cuala said. “Find your people, build your village, go start that conversation, go to that event. The relationships you make here will carry you through the hard days and make the good ones even better.”

Kim’s first convocation as president

President Beong-Soo Kim spoke at convocation in Fall and Spring 2025 as interim president, but this year was his first as the University’s official president after being elected in February. Unlike many of the day’s other speeches about unexpected paths and fostering connection, Kim used his speech to implore students to ask questions.

“Now that you’re here, I want to suggest that all the skills that got you into USC aren’t necessarily the same skills that will make you look back at your time here as a success,” Kim said. “During a time like the one we’re living, when answers are easier to get than ever, something I hope you’ll discover at USC is that even more importantly than getting the right answers is asking the right questions.”

Kim spoke about how the right question can be a catalyst for change, referencing the stories of Pixar’s Braintrust, NASA scientist Katherine Johnson and the invention of the Polaroid camera as examples.

“When we see the point of our work as all about arriving at smart answers, too often we mistake an answer for the end of an effort,” Kim said, recalling a quote from Pixar co-founder Edwin Catmull. “What if instead of seeing questions as the keys that unlock answers, we saw answers as stepping stones to the next question?”

Kim said asking those questions takes ample courage and means admitting that the answer isn’t obvious. However, Kim said when someone asks an unexpected question, it can lead to an innovation like the Polaroid, help send the first man into space in the case of Katherine Johnson or create an award-winning movie.

“That spirit of inquiry is how we advance our academic research, our learning and our excellence, and it’s also how we show other members of our Trojan family that we care about them enough to listen,” Kim said. “That ethic of caring for one another is one of the most precious qualities of the Trojan Family community that you’re now entering. So let me end with a question: Are all of you ready to begin your amazing journeys at USC?”