LEWISTON — Bates College welcomed 499 members of its Class of 2020 on Tuesday morning at convocation ceremonies on the historic campus quad outside Corum Library.

The decision to hold the convocation at the outdoor location was made a few hours before the event, and light rain ended just before the processional.

“You have been preparing for this time across the country and around the world,” Bates President Clayton Spencer said to the first year students. She said four years would go by “in the wink of an eye” and the next time all of the Class of 2020 members will be gathered as one will be at their graduation.

“There is no better place than a residential liberal arts college (such as Bates College) to learn empathy,” she said. She emphasized that they will make friends with other first year students with different backgrounds, and it is this experience that will lead to “the shock of recognizing your shared humanity.”

The convocation address was delivered by Dan Gediman, executive producer of the National Public Radio series “This I believe” and co-editor of the book “This I Believe,” based on the popular broadcasts. Paperback copies of the book, which was selected for common reading by Class of 2020 members, were carried by many of the students at the convocation.

Gediman told the students about numerous twists and turns in his career path, although they were all related to a lifelong interest in radio. He said he was interviewed Monday for a segment on WRBC, the Bates College radio station. That brought back memories of how he once asked a broadcaster how to get into radio, and received generous advice that he still follows.

He said one reason he chose to go to Antioch College in Ohio was because it had a powerful radio station. He started out shelving vinyl record albums.

“Then fate intervened,” he said. He received a grant to produce a radio documentary on jazz films, and his work caught the attention of NPR. It led to work for NPR related to Black History Month, he said.

“None of this was on my career path,” Gediman said, but he told the audience that it all seems connected in retrospect. He said he took classes “that didn’t seem important at the time,” including studies of memoirs and biographies. He was enthralled with histories of great men and women as well as ordinary people, and he said he realized, “I’m connected to this vast parade of people before me.”

Gediman advised the class to “taste everything a liberal arts education has to offer” and “always read the footnotes.”