The Student Alumni Association will host a candlelight devo/senior send-off.
The Candlelight Devo is an annual tradition that typically takes place during Welcome Week. It is a memorable experience for all students that attend ACU.
In the Candlelight Devo each new student is given a candle to light, and then they walk through a tunnel of Upperclassmen and Alumni who sing hymns and spiritual songs to welcome them to the ACU community.
This year, the Student Alumni Association has decided to change up the tradition of Candlelight Devo by using it not only as way of welcoming new students to ACU, but as a way of telling graduating seniors, goodbye.
Aubree Selinger, senior family studies major from Grapevine, is the president of the Student Alumni Association and is organizing the event.
“I went to a conference this summer and I saw different traditions that go on at different campuses,” Selinger said. “I thought to myself ‘I wish we had something that we could commemorate more.'”
Sellinger said that is when she realized that Candlelight Devo could also be a senior commemorative tradition.
“We do such a great job of welcoming the freshmen, why not further that and do it as a senior?” Selinger said.
At the the first Candlelight Devo, the light represents new light, and journey students are about to embark on throughout the next four years at ACU. At the senior Candlelight Devo, there is a different message.
Selinger said that they want to send the message that although the seniors are leaving ACU, they do not want to make it a sad experience.
“You’re lighting your candle and you’re now apart of the alumni group and family, still part of ACU, and you’re taking that light into the world,” she said.
The Candlelight Devo, to many students, is one of the many ACU traditions that they keep with them throughout their time here.
“I would be a part of the senior Candlelight Devo,” said Jacob Kilpatrick, senior youth and family ministry major from Mesquite. “Candlelight Devo was one of my favorite experiences when I got here at ACU and I really felt a part of a community.”
The Candelight Devo will take place April 29 in the Amphitheater.
