Engaging in thoughtful dialogue is not only essential in today’s society, but also is a trademark of the Vanderbilt experience, which begins with the first-year experience on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons. On Sunday, Sept. 14, author Jacqueline Woodson spoke to a packed Langford Auditorium for the 19th Annual Lawson Lecture and offered a master class for the Class of 2029 on using storytelling to foster discourse and find connection, continuing the 2025–26 first-year programming theme of “Stories that Connect Us.”