Above, back row: June Pruegsanusak, Naomi Simpson, Anna Abraham, Meera Tawil, and Misty Monteville. Front row: Lita Kittisrikangwan, Bea Marin Alcala, John Henry Fitzgerald, Sindi Krasta, and Maddalena Albera Top right: Gathered between Trustee President Peter Currie ’74 and Head of School John Palfrey are the recipients of the five major awards announced at Commencement: Joseph Faller (Yale Bowl), Adam Brody (Faculty Prize), Kaitlin Simpson (Non Sibi Award), Janine Ko (Madame Sarah Abbot Award), and Stephen Moreland (Aurelian Honor Society Prize). Right: Kene Adigwe, Nate Meehan, and Robert Rush Inset: Klodian Beqiri
each and every one of the students who comes here. Two of many reasons why this is important: First, we ought to do it because it is right to ensure that everyone feels welcome, that everyone is accepted, and that everyone belongs. From a functional perspective, social science research shows that students who do not have a sense of belonging tend to perform less well. Second, we should honor the experience of every student because the act of doing so is itself a skill—a form of excellence—that every student should have by the time you graduate from Andover. It is a form of growth potential into which we ought to tap. You might have come from a family who has attended Abbot Academy or Phillips Academy over hundreds of years—a family 14
Andover | Commencement 2014
like my own—or you might have come from a family that had not heard of any New England boarding schools, much less this one, a few years ago. You might have come from a family of great privilege or a family that works hard to pay the rent every month. It shouldn’t matter. But it still does, and we have to grapple with what that reality means. At Andover, you have learned much about many things. I trust that everyone here has learned something about art, music, and sport. I trust that you have learned about literature, history, language, mathematics, and the sciences. You have learned the traditional boarding school lessons about character, teamwork, persistence, and how to manage large amounts of work—and how, Class of 2014, you have succeeded at that. Some of you
learned a great deal about the Classics or about how to program a computer to do wonderful (and perhaps even terrifying) things. I will always remember the tiny, high-spirited group of seniors who studied with me across two terms as we explored the world of hacking together. Many of you, a few days ago, climbed the Memorial Bell Tower to learn what the campus looks like from the sky on a clear day. You have had the benefit of a classic liberal arts education during your high school years, an education salted through with some new and exciting ways to teach and learn, which you’ve helped us to develop. For today’s purposes, most of all, you have learned something about how to live in a society where difference is the norm, not the exception. The faculty and the trustees