Live a Life of Adventure
Commencement Ceremony 2021 This year’s commencement acknowledged both the classes of 2020 and 2021. Our commencement speaker, Rosemary Didear, graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University and joined Delphian staff in 1991 with her husband. She has held a variety of positions at the school, most notably serving as Headmistress for sixteen years. In 2015 she was asked by the board to establish the school’s Development Office. The following is an excerpt from her commencement speech. I used to lead a Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities seminar. Looking over the experiences of the Classes of 2020 and ‘21 makes me think of the very first line in that book: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”. Yes, you might be the most unforgettable classes in Delphian history! You’ve had the excitement of spring break 2020, dancing down at the pond and doing activities with staff; you’ve also survived two-week dorm quarantines and choir singing with masks on. All that makes for great stories down the road!
Graduates, I admire each of you. You’ve shown a depth of understanding and competence in application well beyond the usual for a high school graduate. You’ve discovered your potential is limitless. As you’re about to take off from the end of this runway, you each have a very good sense of WHO you are, and understand when you are being true to yourself... and when you aren’t. Challenges to integrity never stop — not at your age, and not at my age. Once you’re off the Delphian runway and in the air, you’ll no longer be surrounded every day by the strong ethical agreements of this group and these peers, and that might be the biggest challenge you’ll face. BUT you do know what it feels like to stay true to yourself — and your own flight plan — and how to get back on it if you’ve wandered off course. Delphian’s logo points of ethics, integrity, knowledge and leadership are SO much a part of you now that I had to wonder: What can I add to that? So I scanned through my own life since high school, looking for what I learned after my own high school graduation that I could
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