Welcome.
Class of 2024, please take your seats.
I want to welcome you all — faculty, staff, parents, guardians, grandparents, special friends, students, and alumni — to the 2024 Graduation Exercises. Today, we celebrate the class of 2024.
Class of 2024, as eighth graders, you have been outstanding leaders. You have leaned into opportunities to connect with younger students, whether making friendship bracelets and pulling garlic mustard weeds with your third grade buddies or leading sports teams and drama rehearsals with members of the Upper Division.
Building community takes skill, hard work, empathy, and commitment, and you, as a grade, were incredible leaders from the very first days of the year until today, your graduation day.
Class of 2024, you’ve made us all proud.
All of us!
As has become my tradition, I’d like to begin this ceremony in a place of gratitude and thanks.
Assembled guests and the Class of 2024, I would like to ask you to pause and to consider the contributions and commitment of the Park faculty and staff who have been your guides on your educational journey. I ask you to take a moment to hold those individuals in your mind and to remember the moments when they challenged you, when they supported you, and when they were simply there for you.
Please take a moment to thank with applause the faculty and staff who support your Park journey.
Class of 2024 and assembled Park faculty and staff, I’d like to ask you to pause and to consider the contributions and commitment of the parents and guardians of our graduates who have given in so many ways to support the work that takes place here at Park during your time at Park.
Please take a moment to thank with applause the parents and guardians of our graduates who supported your Park journey.
Thank you.
Class of 2024, today is a very special day …
Today, we celebrate you as individuals, and we celebrate you as an extraordinary class. You are a class that loves to be in community with each other, with your teachers, and with the entire Park School. Collectively, you are deeply respected for your sincerity and your spirit.
Class of 2024, you show up at Park every day not only ready to contribute, but also thankful for the opportunity to do so. You are quick to raise your hand and you are eager to help whether it is to give a tour, answer a question in morning meeting, host Lower Division Bingo Night, or volunteer at Open House. You said “yes” whenever we asked for your leadership.
You brought this same energy and curiosity to our affinity and alliance spaces this year as well. You welcomed and amplified the voices, concerns, and challenges of younger students and helped to create a safe space for conversation and collective growth.
As practiced advocates, you dove into your Advoc8 projects. You collected signatures and engaged staff and faculty members about the urgency of your initiatives. From stopping gun violence, to increasing composting, to expanding reproductive rights, you saw the opportunity to make change.
Class of 2024, you are also joyful and fun-loving learners. Your Poetry Anthologies perfectly showcase the depth of your critical thinking, intellectual maturity, and your eager desire to learn new concepts.
Your teachers and coaches were not surprised when you also tried so many new sports this year. Within your class, there were students who played soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee, and lacrosse for the very first time. These were not easy sports to “just pick up”… especially as the oldest students in the school, but you worked hard, laughed a lot, and role modeled to younger athletes the joy of trying something new.
At the recent elective showcase, you showed your joy of learning and self-expression. Through all forms of artistic expression, you brought your artistry and skill to the theater, the lobby, the gallery, and the robotics court. Working with younger upper division students, you served as mentors and role models of joy, expression, and achievement.
Your fun didn’t stop there. I understand that you built a cart in the MakerSpace just for the fun of wheeling each other around, and I learned about light-hearted April Fools’ jokes when you told your teachers that the cold air literally froze you mid-sentence.
You take risks, try new things, and have fun every step of the way.
Class of 2024, with your sincerity and spirit, you were a class that was ready to go, and you were exemplary representatives of The Park School wherever you went. Starting with a trip to the MFA and Timeout Market, you marveled at the exhibits, asked insightful questions, tried new foods, and soaked in the world beyond 171 Goddard Avenue.
In the winter, you volunteered at Community Servings in Jamaica Plain. You were the first grade in many years to do this large scale service work. You understood the risks and ramifications of food insecurity, and you enthusiastically helped assemble hundreds of meals and snacks for those in need. As we would expect, you rolled up your sleeves, grabbed gloves, aprons, and hairnets and got right to work.
I was delighted with the invitation to work right along with you: I witnessed your dedication firsthand. The team at Community Servings echoed what we have heard throughout the year. They celebrated your focused commitment and desire to contribute.
When it was time for the international trips, you were ready!
You brought fun, curiosity, impressive language skills, and a clear appreciation for new cultures to France, Italy, Spain, and China. Whether you were making new friends at schools in France and China or taking cooking classes in Spain and Italy, you leaned into every opportunity. Your chaperones raved about the ways you conducted yourselves and would happily take you overseas again.
As I conclude my remarks to you, I want to reflect on the messages of the Grade 8 spring play — Beware the Jabberwock.
Its setting, the Tulgey Woods, and its myriad of characters presented a sort of eternal childhood where two outsiders navigated and embraced the topsy-turvy rules of the wood. Like these characters, you gained perspective even when there were bumps along the way.
You balanced applications, demanding homework assignments, our high expectations and somehow, through it all, you always remained curious, joyful, and open.
Just as the characters of the wood were ever hopeful that they would Gyre and Gimbel in the Wabe, you have taught us to always remain optimistic and to seek authentic connection.
In the play and over the course of this year, you as a class have reminded us of the importance of embracing the journey rather than just the destination…..and of appreciating everyone you meet along the way. Today, you head in many new directions, and we know you are ready.
Class of 2024, you are a remarkable group of scholars, activists, athletes, and artists.… Congratulations and thank you.
