Belmont launches academic year with theme rooted in character, community and faith
Belmont opened the 2025–26 academic year at Opening Convocation, where President Greg Jones invited students, faculty and staff to embrace this year’s theme: Living the Dream Together with Hope.
The theme grows out of Belmont’s SOUL framework — a guiding vision introduced last year to nurture character and cultivate wisdom amid change in higher education.
The SOUL framework orients our shared life together:
S — Seek Excellence with HumilityO — Offer Gratitude with Joy
U — Unleash Hospitality with Love
L — Live the Dream Together with Hope (this year’s focus)
Living the Dream Together
Jones reminded the Belmont community that this year’s theme comes from the final letter in the SOUL framework — L. He explained that it invites us to begin with “the end in mind,” drawing on the Greek word telos as a reminder of our ultimate purpose and direction.
“We are not here to live only our own dreams,” he said, “but to discover God’s dream for humanity, one that sweeps up our hopes into a larger vision of flourishing.”
Living the dream together, he noted, means leaning forward into the future rather than standing back on our heels. It is about striving toward a “North Star” with confidence, cultivating friendships and recognizing that teamwork makes us stronger.
“It’s looking at the ways basketball players focus on assists and collaboration,” Jones said. “Together, we can always be better.”
Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us.
With Hope
Throughout his address, Jones reflected on the role of hope in sustaining communities through challenge. He drew a distinction between optimism and hope, quoting Winston Churchill: “If a person’s not an optimist at the age of 16, he doesn’t have a heart, or if he’s not a pessimist by the time he’s 40, he doesn’t have a head.” Optimism, Jones said, can fade into cynicism when the world disappoints.
“Hope is different,” he continued. “It is rooted in who God is, and in our trust in God’s future.”
He also reminded the Belmont community that hope does not deny hardship as Romans 5 points out — it threads the needle between despair and presumption, acknowledging brokenness while pointing forward to renewal and joy.
Learning from Belmont’s Story
Jones pointed to Belmont’s own history of resilience. When Blanton Hall burned in 1972 — at a time when the University was financially fragile — the community chose to move forward with courage and faith. Today, the Phoenix Rising sculpture stands as a symbol of how God can bring life out of ashes.
He reminded the community of the song “Holding the Hope for You,” written by a Belmont student and alumnus, which captures the reality that there will be times when someone else carries hope for us, and times when we carry it for them.
An Invitation to the Community
Jones concluded with a call to action for students, faculty and staff to embody this year’s theme in daily life — whether through acts of hospitality, supporting one another in academics or the arts, or joining together in worship or service.
Jones also pointed to a striking symbol from Christian art: the peacock, often used as an image of resurrection. “At first glance it looks beautiful enough,” he said. “But then the peacock opens its feathers and reveals something even more dazzling. That’s what it means to live the dream together with hope — God’s future is always more than we could ask or imagine.”
“Let’s not stand on our heels, but on our tiptoes, excited for what God has before us at Belmont,” he concluded. “Together, let’s live the dream with hope — believing that God can do far more than we could ever ask or imagine.”