CLAUDIA DAVIS

On athletic teams, from soccer to basketball to lacrosse, our coaches have improved our skills, championed our competitiveness, and taught us to be team players and good sports.

On stages, from the Mulitz to Hershey Park to Carnegie Hall, our arts and music teachers have cultivated our creativity and spotlighted our talents.

In our wonderfully diverse and inclusive community, we have learned to respect, value, and celebrate our human differences.

And, through our community service, we have realized the importance of volunteering and helping others.

Good morning, Dragons. My name is Claudia Davis and I am proud to be a GCS Lifer, which means that I have attended GCS since kindergarten. I have spent 13 years of my life in a hunter green plaid uniform traveling up and down GCS’s long, tree-lined driveway, spending time in each division along the way. I have gone from Scooter City to Senior Field Placement, addition to AP Calculus, and the alphabet to Integrative. To put it simply, I have grown up at GCS and it has had a profound effect on my development as a human being.

So, I wanted to give this Commencement speech today because I understand and would like to share with all of you how GCS changes students’ lives. Every graduate on this stage, whether they came to GCS in Pre-K or Twelfth Grade, has been positively changed by being here.

In classrooms, from building roller coasters with Mrs. Lieberman to reading Romeo and Juliet with Mrs. Stewart to studying the Constitution with Mr. Mac, our dedicated teachers have inspired our intellectual curiosity and taught us to think critically. This was especially true during the COVID pandemic when they taught us digitally. Through screens, our teachers put in extra time and tremendous effort under difficult circumstances to keep us engaged and learning. For example, Mr. Conroy taught the Iliad epically dressed as a Greek wearing a bedsheet as a toga, Mrs. Kelly taught Biology with her newborn baby on her lap, and Mrs. Haack helped us perform Chemistry labs in our kitchens. Our teachers are truly our heroes.

We were told to work hard and play hard, and we did. We also had a lot of fun, too. We have sledded down the hill behind the Manor House when it snowed, had our faces painted and jumped in bounce houses at Family Days, competed Glens versus Elgs at Field Days (go Glens!), battled in intense games of musical chairs in Forum, danced our shoes off at proms, and paraded in costumes along GCS’s driveway every Halloween.

So, that brings me back to where I started both my time at GCS and this speech – traveling up and down GCS’s long, tree-lined driveway. There is a video on the GCS website of Mr. Gould, our founder, telling the story of the first time he drove down that driveway and knew that he had discovered something special. He was right. Every graduate on this stage is a better person for having traveled GCS’s driveway to this special place.

Therefore, on behalf of my fellow graduates, I want to thank our parents, teachers, administrators, staff, and coaches for giving us the gift of a GCS education. It has changed us. We are smarter, stronger, and kinder because of it. Now it is our turn to make change. We will make you proud by using the GCS education you have given us to go and change the world for the better. And, while the world and our generation face great challenges, we will be able to overcome them because we are, and always will be, GCS Dragons. Thank you for listening to my speech and have a great Dragon day!