The Conroy Distinguished Visitor regaled students with tales of his military service from the depths of the seas to the upper echelons of the U.S. government.
June 9, 2023
Graduating exercises highlight warmth, connectedness as SPS sends 142 Sixth Formers on their way.
BY KRISTIN DUISBERG
The weather for Graduation Weekend was unseasonably cold, with low, gray skies and the ever-present threat of rain. But the palpable warmth of feeling shared by those who had gathered to celebrate the Form of 2023 more than made up for the chilly temperatures as families, friends, underformers and other members of the SPS community convened on School grounds Saturday, June 3, and Sunday, June 4, for Baccalaureate, Graduation and a variety of traditions old and new to send 142 Sixth Formers on their way.
Indeed, the warmth of human connection was a thread that ran through the remarks offered by the weekend’s speakers, who included Molly Mitchell ’06, a television screenwriter who delivered the Baccalaureate address, and Graduation speakers Rector Kathy Giles and Form of 2023 President Natalie Thayer.
At the beginning of her remarks, Giles urged the graduating students to take a moment to honor the loved ones who weren’t able to attend the ceremony in person, saying, “Let’s celebrate the warmth, goodness and joy of those beloveds and feel it today in our love and gratitude for them.” Thayer spoke about the deep and abiding connections she had made with her formmates and the fact that what she would miss most about St. Paul’s School was, “you, the people. Although we will stay in touch and there are many reunions that await us, we will never be together in quite the same way again.”
During her Baccalaureate address on Saturday afternoon, Mitchell acknowledged that leaving the connectedness of St. Paul’s for almost any other community is inevitably a “shock to the system.” She exhorted graduates to lean into that experience, fortified by the knowledge that they are leaving the School “fiercely independent, unflaggingly curious, community-minded and — most of all — prepared…. Everything you need you already have, and I trust you’ll find another great community to help bring [your unique set of gifts] out in you.”
The traditional Baccalaureate ceremony, held in the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, was flanked by two Graduation Weekend events that have evolved in recent years. Earlier in the afternoon, the academic and School awards that in past years were given out at graduation became part of a standalone awards ceremony that also included year-end athletic awards. Following Baccalaureate, teachers, parents, students and others lined Rectory and Library Roads to cheer along a Sixth Form Parade that led the Form of 2023 to dinner in the Stovell Tennis Courts — with multiple stops for handshakes and hugs along the way.
During Sunday’s Graduation Exercises, Giles acknowledged the “commencement” of a number of faculty members who were moving on from SPS. She also reflected on the “second retirement” of Director of Safety Tim McGinley — who had retired from the Concord Fire Department prior to his five-year tenure at SPS — and Matt Soule ’77, who returned to the School after graduating from Princeton in 1981 and spent four decades teaching English and Humanities. Noting his dedication to teaching, coaching, mentoring and readying thousands of students to go out into the world, Giles said of Soule, “His is the kind of career to which all of us who teach in these schools aspire.”
As the wind carried across Lower School Pond and students tightened coats and sweaters around their shoulders, Giles marveled at the manner in which the Form of 2023 continued — in the words of form secretary Ridder Morton — “to bleed positivity” in the face of challenges considerably more significant than inclement weather, including COVID-19 and the isolating influence of social media. The connectedness that had helped the graduating class navigate these challenges, she noted, had been beautifully captured by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who, during his Conroy Visit to the School in May, had exhorted members of the SPS Orchestra to use their “full bow real estate” when they played .
“Focusing exclusively on playing one’s own part correctly, with shorter strokes that produce quicker and more basic sound, may make mistakes less noticeable, but truly limits the expression of the beauty and spirit with which the music was written and the joy that comes with experiencing that beauty and spirit together, with others,” Giles said. Invoking the concept of the “arrival fallacy,” or that the idea of achievement equals happiness, she added, “You all know this to be true from your work around tables in classrooms, on teams and in casts and choruses and choirs — that when we focus on just ourselves, life gets small, hard and sad fast, but when we open ourselves to playing WITH each other, indeed we are more than the sum of our parts, we draw forth what is best in all of us, and out of that arises an energy that lasts, that satisfies, that recharges us.”
Your growth as individuals and as a form has created not just the great successes we have been celebrating … but your growth has also created what has felt to me as a positive, growth-mindset, gratitude-oriented community.”
— Rector Kathy Giles
Following the awarding of diplomas and the joyful tossing of roses, the graduates were greeted by faculty as the School’s newest alumni and then headed to Coit for a final lunch on the SPS grounds. And then, as if it had been planned that way, the first raindrops began to fall just as the last families departed Graduation Lawn.
For a full listing of the academic, athletic and community awards given out during Graduation week, click on the stories below:
Spring Student Achievement Awards »
Spring Athletic Awards and Recognition »
