Commencement

Address to the Class of 2023, June 4

Gand guests, our faculty and staff, faculty emeriti, and members of the Board of Trustees.

Parents and guardians, thank you for entrusting Andover with the education of your children. The pathways they have forged to arrive at this day are uniquely theirs. All they have invested in their intellectual pursuits, in their friendships, and in themselves now form the surest foundation for a bright future.

As we celebrate the Class of 2023, please join me in a round of applause for all that they have accomplished.

After last year’s Commencement ceremony an older alumnus stopped me and commented that he attended both the 2021 and the 2022

“When I look at my peers in this class I am filled with hope. I see the sense of knowledge and goodness, see the spirit of non sibi, I see the soul of a people who care about others. see changemakers, see industry leaders, and I see heads of state, but most importantly I see a group that understands that they have a responsibility to serve... when I say we have an obligation to serve, I mean we have an obligation to touch people’s hearts, to make an impact on people’s lives, and to love people just as those at Andover have loved us.”

NIGEL SAVAGE ’23 School Co-President

Commencements and heard both of my speeches. He said, in that direct New England way, “You were better this year, but you still speak too fast and take too long.” So, I hope to be even better this year on both counts!

Today, I ask you to consider how you will take your Andover education into a world that is vastly different from that experienced by any previous generation. The main driver being the ubiquity of technology in your lives.

Technology puts the world at your fingertips and, ironically, makes it all too easy to retreat from real life.

It’s tempting to stay in your personal enclave, to surround yourself with likeminded people, to let technology do the work or have an outsized influence in your lives.

You may have heard about the surgeon general’s recent advisory on social media and youth mental health. He cautions that we do not have an adequate understanding of the scope and scale of social media’s impact on adolescent mental health. He faults tech companies for their lack of transparency and for limiting access to data. We know there are benefits and risks inherent in these platforms, but our knowledge of their impact is much too limited.

Of course, social media’s benefits include providing connections and affirmation for those who often need it most—marginalized groups like LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities, for example. On the other hand, we also know that 24/7 technology commonly exposes young people to inappropriate or harmful content and can lead to risky behaviors.

I share this, not as a public health physician looking to dampen your big day, but in the spirit of our motto, “goodness and knowledge.” Your generation ultimately will be the one to address technology’s shortcomings and to find solutions toward healthier and safer online environments. Each generation faces its own set of complicated issues that demand its attention and action. You are not the first generation to deal with the impact of technology. Even the famous 1945 Harvard report, General Education in a Free Society, discussed the implication of technological advances on education: radio, film, recordings, television. But today’s tech advances are of unprecedented complexity and magnitude. Almost all the issues you face connect to technology in some way.

I share the surgeon general’s advisory with confidence that Andover has equipped you with the skills needed to navigate toward the promise of technology and away from its pitfalls. Your teachers gave you agency in the classroom while guiding your learning. You challenged and supported one another while also staying true to your own beliefs.

Think of the reasons why you chose PA, why you chose to immerse yourself

“Given that we have been privileged with a remarkable education, it is important that we maintain this sort of curiosity. We have a greater obligation to keep challenging ourselves. A greater obligation to stay curious about our place in the world. A greater obligation to keep thinking about the question, “What now?” A greater obligation to keep feeling in awe of the world...It has been an honor and a privilege to be here with you all today. I stand here in awe of each and every one of you and my heart is full of the possibilities of what we might achieve.”

SUI YU ’23 School Co-President

in an intentionally diverse community, why a rigorous academic program was important to you.

You came to PA to learn how to think critically and independently about the world and the challenges it presents us. You came here to develop your own values and ideals, to interrogate what is right and just based on those ideals. Our job as educators is not to tell you what to think, but to teach you how to think. Unlike today’s technologies, we do not aim to predict your next move.

Your teachers can say with confidence that not only are you prepared for college, but you are also prepared for the demands of today’s society, prepared to foresee what the world needs, and prepared to conceive and create solutions that are completely unknown to us today.

As our time together comes to a close, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that you have already proven your ability to navigate the unknown. Your education and so much else was disrupted by the pandemic in real and lasting ways. Each year presented its own unique challenges, such as remote, hybrid, and HyFlex learning and Covid testing, masks, and vaccinations. You’ve been through a lot, you’ve been shaped by these experiences, you’ve been tested, and you have responded with remarkable resilience and determination.

When we invoke our goodness and knowledge founding principle, as Nigel reminded us earlier, I want to focus on the second part of the quote: knowledge without goodness is dangerous.

I would find it hard to imagine a more concise or more prophetic articulation of today’s challenges with technology than those few words written almost 250 years ago in our school’s constitution: knowledge without goodness is dangerous.

I want to double down on this institutional value and encourage you, as newly minted alumni, to continue doing what you have done so well during your time at Andover.

Unite goodness and knowledge and ask the important questions, those that require nuanced understanding beyond what today’s technology can serve up, questions whose answers require a goodness that technology will never provide: What do others need from you? What do your family, community, discipline, and world need? Ask yourself: What is missing in these spaces? And then fill that void with those pieces of yourself that you discovered and refined as a student here.

Class of ’23, when these questions come up, lean on the foundation of your Andover experience for guidance. Your deliberate pursuit of goodness and knowledge forms a compelling case for what you will do tomorrow, next year, and well into the future.

Good luck and Godspeed! 