It has to be earned to be worn and after four years of hard work and determination, more than 1,000 senior St. Francis Xavier University students received their coveted X-Ring in a poignant ceremony held Dec. 3 – the feast of St. Francis Xavier – at StFX’s Charles V. Keating Centre.
 
Students clad in black gowns proceeded to the stage to proudly accept their X-Ring in a ceremony rich with tradition. The ceremony itself is open only to graduating students. A standing-room only crowd of proud parents, family, and friends watched the ceremony live via video from auditoriums and conference rooms on campus. Alumni tuned in via internet broadcast from Dubai to South Africa, from North Carolina to the United Kingdom. Many participated in real-time Twitter and Facebook feeds from the event.
 
“There are so many personal stories in this ring,” StFX President Dr. Sean Riley said in his opening remarks as he encouraged the students to not only feel pride in their accomplishments, but also courage and confidence for their future.
 
The ring has much meaning for all here, Connor Curran, master of ceremonies and president of the senior class said to his classmates.
 
“Never forget that it does have significant meaning.”
 
Guest speaker Dr. Andrew Howlett from the Class of 2002, delivered an inspiring speech filled with humour and insight. Mr. Howlett, the president of the StFX Toronto alumni chapter, says he still vividly recalls his own X-Ring ceremony 10 years earlier, and what StFX has meant for him.
 
“It happened here for me,” he said. “You can never find a place where people are instantly seeing the best in each other.”
 
He encouraged the Class of 2012 to use the ring as a reminder to understand and see the best in others, to seek out mentors, and to consider themselves as mentors for others.
 
 “The real sacredness of this moment is being here (in this room), where your heart is pounding and your hands anticipate the heaviness that will connect you for life,” he said to cheers.
 
Alumni Association president Shawn Monahan congratulated the students and told them his own X-Ring embodies so many things for him. “This is your bond, to the Xaverians in the room, and to the thousands of alumni before you.”
 
Popular human kinetics professor Dr. Angie Thompson received the honorary X-Ring. Minutes before her daughter Cassandra received her own X-Ring as part of the senior class. “You got me, oh my gosh,” a delighted and surprised Dr. Thompson said. “I’ve been an X-Ring wannabe for a long time. This means so much to me.”
 
The eagerly-anticipated ceremony had many touching moments. As live music filled the Keating Centre, students paraded with a procession of candles to the front of the room to place in the formation of an “X”. Maura Casey, vice-president of the senior class, read from the writing of Dr. Moses Coady. And as students filed out of the room, shiny new X-Rings on their fingers, they all took time to tap wood from a Chapel kneeler – a long-held X-Ring ceremony tradition.   
 
The countdown to X-Ring starts the first day students step foot on campus – a total of 1,184 days until they receive their X-Ring in their fourth year.
 
Students who have earned the distinctive university symbol join a long line of successful graduates including prime ministers, CEOs, and internationally acclaimed artists whose global awareness and ongoing commitment to social justice reflect their enduring Xaverian values.
 
Each year on Dec. 3rd StFX alumni chapters from around the world host StFX Day celebrations. Alumni get together to share memories and celebrate a day they fondly when they earned a permanent reminder of their StFX experience.