Andover magazine Commencement 2018

2018 Commencement Issue

Andover | Commencement 2018

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Class of 2018

CONTENTS Andover for Life................................................... 3 Promenade ........................................................... 4 Community Convocation.................................. 6 Commencement Concert ..................................7 Baccalaureate......................................................... 8 Left: Back row: Stephen Kelly, Clementene Clayton, Carson Teitler, Ruide “Reader” Wang. Front row: Jennifer Lee, Jacob Golas, Anna Cambron, Tony Faller, Forrest Eimold On the cover: Akane Gonda

Address to the Class of 2018 ...........................10 Photo Album ..............................................16–19 Class of 2018 By the Numbers ...................... 20

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COMMENCEMENT 2018

Volume 111 Number 4 PUBLISHER

Tracy M. Sweet Director of Academy Communications EDITOR

Allyson Irish ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Rita Savard DESIGNER

Ken Puleo

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Allyson Irish, Gil Talbot, Bethany Versoy, Jessie Wallner iStock.com/BrianAJackson, Evgeniy Skripnichenko, mickeyd_600 Š 2018 Phillips Academy, Andover, MA All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Andover, the magazine of Phillips Academy, is published four times a year by the Office of Communication at Phillips Academy, 180 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810-4161.

Main phone: 978-749-4000 Changes of address and death notices: 978-749-4269; alumni-records@andover.edu Phillips Academy website: www.andover.edu Andover magazine Phone: 978-749-4677 Email: andovermagazine@andover.edu Periodicals postage paid at Andover, MA and additional mailing offices.

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Andover | Commencement 2018

Andover for Life Dear Class of 2018, On June 3, under clear skies and with perfect temperatures, you formed the unbreakable Commencement Circle to pass your diplomas around. The Commencement Circle is a rich tradition, one of many at Phillips Academy.

Traditions often take the form of ceremonies and rituals.

They are captured in pictures and quotes, as this issue of Andover magazine shows.

One of the greatest traditions of our alma mater is building relationships on Andover Hill that will stay with you throughout your life.

During Commencement Weekend, classmates and faculty members shared the impact of these relationships in their formal remarks. Copresident Sam Bird reflected that the weekend of pomp and circumstance did, in fact, “matter because [Commencement] represents what our class might achieve, and it demonstrates what we as individuals are capable of.” Mr. Housiaux recalled that when you arrived on campus, many did not know “if you would only ever be guests here, or if someday you could call this place home.” During your time on campus, making this place your home, you came together as a class that supports each other.

As Claudia Meng shared, “I think what I’m most grateful for is how you’ve raised me. How we’ve all raised each other.” Copresident Eastlyn Frankel noted that this class is “filled with curious, hungry, inquisitive, young minds, who encourage and support this kind of growth so that we leave having known ourselves just a little bit better.” And Amiri Tulloch said he would make just one change to his Andover tenure: “more time with people.”

The good news is that there is still plenty of time for that! Stay in touch with each other and with us, and get to know some of the 25,000+ members of the Andover alumni family, of which you are now a part. You will find that alums across the generations and around the world are equally as welcoming, supportive, and engaging as your own classmates. Come back to Andover; it will always be your home. And as Eastlyn’s father did, take a picture on the steps of Sam Phil every time you visit. #Andoverforlife.

In knowledge and goodness,

Jenny Savino P’21

Director of Alumni Engagement

Akshay Mundra, Jake Zanazzi, Reuben Philip, Eastlyn Frankel, Cecelia Vieira

Stephen Matloff ’91

President of Alumni Council

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Promenade

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1. Derek Jiang, Jen Lee, Tanya Thangthanakul, and guest 2. Chris Ward ’19 and Isaiah Lee ’19 3. Jessica Wang, Isaac Newell, Spencer Davis, and Michaela Jones 4. Itzelt Reyes ’19, Daša Novysedláková, Sawsan AlShaiba, and Alisa CruegerCain ’20 5. Amy Ji and Luc Pan ’19 6. David Onabanjo and Cindy Espinosa

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7. Front row: Reuben Phillip, Sarah Rigazio, Christian Lippey ’17, Olivia Brokaw, Lila Brady, Nick Schoeller, Charlie Mayhew, Grace Rademacher, Jackson Emus ’19, Emma Timken.

Back row: Will Raphael, Elizabeth Welch, Claudia Leopold, Thomas Glover.

8. Thaddeus Hunt ’19 and Justice Robinson

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9. Isaiah Lee ’19 and Krystiana Swain, Eastlyn Frankel and Nick Demetroulakos ’19, Clara Steiner ’19 and Ace Ellsweig 10. Somya Mohindra and David Tsai 11. Ward Bradt, Charlie Murphy ’19, Ben Ringer, Michael Codrington, Jason Reynolds, Will Kantaros, Anjunae Chandran 1 2. Keely Aouga ’19 and Abdu Donka 13. Elizabeth Welch and Will Raphael

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Community Convocation “I remember having so many questions and concerns and desires about Andover … But I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. It was challenging academically and also rewarding, and it was priceless from a socialization standpoint. I would only make one change: More time with people. But, I guess, Andover taught me that lesson, too—don’t take time for granted.”

1. English instructor Nina Scott and Lucy Jung 2. Newly elected class president Rudd Fawcett makes a toast 3. Bailey Colón, Associate Director of College Counseling Maggie Farnsworth, and Nicolette Joe 4. Pierce Bausano, Director of Student Activities Chris Capano, Thomas Glover

—Amiri Tulloch

“At the end of the day, I think what I’m most grateful for is how you’ve raised me. How we’ve all raised each other.

How I’m walking away with less youth and less naiveté, but with grounding in my sense of self and my place within the world. And for that, I am so, so grateful.”

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—Claudia Meng

“…you arrived here new, uncertain, unsure about your place here. Not knowing if Andover was for you, if it was—or one day could be—yours. Not knowing if you would only ever be guests here, or if someday you could call this place home…for your sake, this world was created.”

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—Andy Housiaux Instructor and Chair, Philosophy and Religious Studies

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Commencement Concert

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1. Yuji Chan 2. Matthew Tai 3. Derek Jacoby, Music Instructor 4. Ruide “Reader� Wang 5. Hannah Garth 6. Daniel Yen

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7. Nathan Cruz Walma

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Baccalaureate

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“The beginning of our new chapters are hinged upon the successful closing of this one. It is no coincidence that—just as a package on your front door step, imprinted with your name, marked the beginning of your journey here—a small leatherette case with your name on it will mark another beginning. Finis Origine Pendet, for we are indeed just getting started.”

—Daniel R. James II

“As a nation, we are immersed in a troubling time where our national discourse, voiced by politicians, neighbors, tweeters, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, your parents, and me, is often coarse and unkind…Our politics don’t reflect non sibi…We need fresh thinking from a new generation to glue our nation and the world back together… we desperately need you, the next generation…I plead with you to become engaged. Take the high road. And always reflect through your actions the core values you learned at Andover.”

—Frederick Reichenbach ’83, P’14, ’18

“Trust is the cornerstone upon which all human relationships revolve. It is built and maintained by many small actions, the day-to-day decisions that comprise our lives. Without trust you can do nothing of lasting significance. With trust, anything is possible…You are future impact-makers in this world. Be diligent in keeping your moral compass facing true north.”

—Patricia B. Davison

Director of Academic Skills Center and Coordinator of Student Disability Resources

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Commencement John Palfrey P’21, Head of School, Address to the Class of 2018, June 3, 2018

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elcome, all—trustees, faculty, and staff; faculty emeriti; trustees emeriti; alumni, families, friends, and, most important, members of the graduating Class of 2018.

Thank you all for being here today.

Let us please start by acknowledging with gratitude the adults in the Andover community. Andover thrives as a direct result of individual and collective diligence, support, and love. To all the adults who select our students in the admissions process, who care for our students every day, and who teach and help them all the way along: thank you. Please join me in a great big round of applause for the faculty, staff, and faculty emeriti of Phillips Academy.

To the parents and grandparents, guardians and friends: You, too, deserve our warm thanks. Thank you for agreeing with the student in your life that heading off to Andover was a sacrifice worth making. I know, for many of you, it is indeed a great sacrifice to part with your children so early, for so many days out of the year—whether as boarding or day students. For this gift of time, you have our enduring thanks. These students have grown, perhaps beyond recognition; they have worked very hard; and they are now ready, in most cases extremely ready, for the next chapter in their lives—all as it should be. We thank you for making possible this education for these terrific young people.

And to the Class of 2018: congratulations and thank you.

Eastlyn and Sam: You have had no easy task. Your leadership has been essential this year, in ways that have been spoken and unspoken. Thank you for your compelling words this morning. Thank you also for the way in which you have led your class and this school with distinction all year. We are all in your debt.

Before I share a few concluding remarks with you, we have one bit of business to attend to, you and I. We are all aware that we are not a complete class today. Our year began in tragedy. While today is your day to celebrate all that you have accomplished, it is also fitting and proper that we should take a moment to acknowledge one who is not with us today. I hope you will join me for a moment of silence in remembrance of Daniel Nakajima.

Perhaps it is because I trained as a lawyer, but I like to think of this address as my closing argument. It is the last of many times I get the true privilege to stand before you and make Andover’s case. It begins with your revisit days, when, with your parents, we talked together about why an Andover education might make 10

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I present to you the great Class of 2018

Makenna Marshall and Daniel James II

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1. Lara Robinson, Marieta Rojas-Agüero, and Sawsan AlShaiba 2. Sarah Choi and Ale Macaya 3. Jeff Zaeder and Justice Robinson 4. Quint Finney, James McMurtrie, Anjunae Chandran, Connor Devlin, Tyler Craigwell, Johnny Francis, Danny Levine, and Moyo Oyebode

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sense for you. It extends through All-School Meeting and our exploration of Andover’s founding values— non sibi, youth from every quarter, finis origine pendet, knowledge and goodness—and the big issues of our time. And it comes together here, in a final address.

Whether you have been here for one year or two, three years or four, I trust it is plain what we have been seeking to impart to you through your Andover education: in essence, knowledge and goodness.

The knowledge part is relatively straightforward.

You’ve all done that, extremely well, or you wouldn’t be here today. You all signed up for a very rigorous academic experience and you have all succeeded at surpassing our graduation requirements. Well done.

Along the way, you’ve made beautiful music and art, put on compelling productions, won athletic championships, lost athletic championships, made lifelong friends, fallen in and out of love. You have done the essential work of growing up. Well done for that too. These things all matter.

This year, as you know, we have cleared out much of the library, including the archives, in order that we might renovate the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library.

Yes—contrary to certain rumors and recently posted YouTube videos, most of those books and papers are, in fact, going back in to the library when it re-opens.

In the course of removing the books, our team had the chance to examine many of them—and we found wonderful things. One was a book from the library of Samuel Phillips, from around the time of the school’s founding. This book is titled A Treatise on Self-Knowledge by John Mason. As all historians know—and you are all historians, since you met our graduation requirements—it is a thrill to learn about what historical characters read and learned themselves, as we seek to understand the past. A Treatise on Self-Knowledge is instructive. One line from it helps with my speech this morning. As Sam Phil likely read: “ ‘Know thyself ’ is one of the most useful and comprehensive precepts in the whole moral system.

And it is well known in how great esteem it was held by the ancients; and in how high esteem the duty of self-examination, as necessary to it.”

A part of your job, while you have been at Andover, has been self-examination. Put that together with the other half of the knowledge and goodness function.

What does it mean for us to have taught you goodness? Put a better way, what does it mean for you to have learned goodness? As you examine yourself on this pivotal day, your high school Commencement, what do you see?

When Andover was founded, in the throes of the American Revolution, the answer to that

question was actually pretty easy. Our founders told the faculty—initially just one teacher—to teach the Christian Gospel. That was goodness.

For many of us here assembled, it still is today. In a school with today’s youth from every quarter, the question of what goodness really means is a bit more complicated.

For my part, I think of goodness as having three components: to be a good person, living a good life, in a good society.

Start with the idea of being a good person.

What sets Andover apart? It is certainly our need-blind admissions policy, rigor and excellence in academics and in all our endeavors, and the wonderful community of people gathered on a truly beautiful campus. But most of all, most essentially, it is a set of values that we explore and we share. You and I might not agree on each aspect of these values, exactly, but we know what they are, and they ground us as part of Andover. It is these values that help define what it means to be a good person.

In the senior survey, we asked you to think about what it means to be a good person. These responses gave me a great deal of hope for the future. Some of you talked about goodness in terms that should by now be very familiar: “Non sibi is what first comes to mind. I genuinely feel happy when helping others.”

Another student wrote: “It means doing your best to uphold values that you find true and that you admire in others.” A third wrote: “The meaning is very simple, and that is just being kind to anybody, no matter who it is, and also being supportive of people that mean the most to you.”

This discussion of what it means to be a good person extends all the way back through the school’s history. Phebe McKeen, as you may know, served as longtime assistant principal of Abbot Academy, from 1859 to 1880. A large building on the Abbot campus bears her name. Ms. McKeen was also a fine writer. In one book, she described a notable Andover graduate, Joseph Hardy Neesima, of her era. Neesima came to the United States from Japan in the 19th century to seek “a good education.” Neesima found his good education at Phillips Academy. As a student, Ms. McKeen wrote, Neesima had “no superior in intellect. His mind has an indomitable propensity for diving to the bottom.” In other words, he had the knowledge part down. Just as important, Ms. McKeen told the story of this student because of his goodness, at once innate and learned. She described with care his “modesty and simplicity” and the fact those who got to know him best treated him with utmost “respect and affection.”

It is traits like these that we have come to see and admire in each of you, as you’ve grappled with what

“I have no doubt that each of you will be extraordinarily successful in what you do. I want each of you to go on and decide to change one person’s life—to make your little corner of the world a better place. No matter how small the difference, it will make that difference to the people you are with.”

—Sam Bird School Copresident

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5. Charlie Mayhew, Rudd Fawcett, Matt Shea 6. Elizabeth Welch, Kaela Olsen, Tookie Wilson 7. Alexa Goulas, Julia Morrissey 8. Fred Pan

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1. Head of School John G. Palfrey P’21 and Board of Trustees Chair Peter L.S. Currie ’74, P’03, with student award winners Nick Isenhower, Buzzy Barrow, Tookie Wilson, Emily Ndiokho, and David Onabanjo 2. Sarah Rigazio and Hayden Weatherall 3. Xander Peterson and David Tsai 4. Adrienne Zhang 5. Annika Sparrell, Yifei Wu, and Taryn John-Lewis

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it means to be good. We have seen you support one another on very hard days this year as well as joyful, bright days this spring. Thank you for all the good things—the many acts of non sibi that you have done while you’ve been here. You are already good people—I know that from firsthand experience.

As for the “good life,” that, of course, means many things to many different people. But one way to see this challenge is through the lens of how you focus your time and energy. If there is something that you’d like to see changed or preserved in the world, I hope you will spend your time and lead your life in such a way as to make it so.

If you become a successful investment banker, as some of you will, I hope you will also, along the way, become a fine arts photographer, a philanthropist, an excellent board member, a terrific parent, and a great friend. If you are elected to high public office—not far-fetched given that Andover graduates today serve as the congressman from this district; leading candidate for the next district over; and as head of the FBI, in addition to being two of the last five United States presidents—I hope you will act with grace and dignity, courage and thoughtfulness, humility and kindness.

As I mentioned in our final All-School Meeting of the year, I hope that a few of you, at least a few, will choose to spend your lives teaching. When the time comes, I am confident there will be openings in buildings very close to where we stand right now that you might fill—dorms to live in, classrooms to teach in, fields to coach on. The teaching profession needs Andover graduates, as all professions do.

Returning to our graduate Mr. Neesima, one of the reasons that Ms. McKeen chose to chronicle his story is that Mr. Neesima believed that the world could be improved through education. He returned from the United States to Japan to create a university—to be able to offer what he believed was a good education to the people of his home country. Doshisha University is today one of the great learning institutions of the world. You may have passed a statue commemorating this connection in the grassy courtyard framed by Sykes Wellness Center, Bulfinch Hall, Shuman Admission Center, and Salem Street.

Finally, as for a good society: it does not come about on its own. I don’t believe, as some have stated, that the arc of history necessarily bends toward justice.

It takes people making deliberate decisions and acting according to their values to make it so. A good society comes about through good people leading good lives with a broad, public purpose in mind.

During your time at Andover, we have heard from many alumni who have helped to build a good society. In November of your lower year, we presented

Marvin Minsky ’45 with the Andover Alumni Award of Distinction. After getting a bachelor’s degree and a PhD in mathematics, he built the first neural network simulator in 1951. A prestigious career at MIT would follow, in which Minsky has been credited with being one of the inventors of artificial intelligence and a founder of the MIT Media Lab. Minsky returned to campus and attended several math classes. It was following the All-School Meeting in the chapel when Marvin’s passion was revealed: well into his 80s, he took to the Steinway piano on the dais and played brilliantly for 15 minutes.

We heard from Ai-jen Poo ’92 when she received the Fuess Award in 2016. Ms. Poo is a national labor organizer and leader of a social movement demanding that federal and state labor laws and protections be expanded to include the domestic worker workforce—the workforce “that makes all other work possible,” says Poo. During her All-School Meeting address, Poo said, “We’ve been taught this powerful myth for our whole lives ‘that we just got to get it together; go it alone; pull ourselves up by our bootstraps’,” Poo told the PA community. “But the truth is, once we’re born, we are part of an incredible web of human interdependence.” Those who watch the Golden Globes may have seen Ms. Poo enter the event as Meryl Streep’s guest.

Finally, Ted Sizer, our 12th head of school, spoke of this idea of good people creating a good society when he said: “...[G]ood character can well be extended in our minds to include greater purposefulness, a more affirmative commitment to democratic ideals and higher standards of personal performance.”

Many of you, in the senior survey, agreed with Sizer. For instance, one of you told us: “Being a good person, to me, means giving back to the community (whether it be the immediate local community or the world) as much as possible.”

To the class of 2018: I rest my case. I know that you will make the world a better place by who you become in the years that follow today and by what you will contribute to the world—all the while informed by what you learned and experienced here at Andover. Finis origine pendet.

To the grandparents, guardians, parents, and friends: on behalf of the faculty, staff, and trustees of Andover, I present to you the great Class of 2018, tested by high academic challenge, engaged by their larger community, touched by tragedy, connected to one another across differences of manifold kinds, and learned in the great end and real business of living.

Congratulations and Godspeed. Thank you. 

“At Andover, I was forced to confront, to wrestle, to grapple with this question: Who am I? Only at Andover, with people like this, do I believe I was able to grow into myself. The Class of 2018 is filled with curious, hungry, and inquisitive young minds who encourage and support this kind of growth, so that we leave knowing ourselves just a little bit better.”

—Eastlyn Frankel School Copresident

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6. Moreland and Emma Chatson 7. Thomas Glover and Nick Schoeller 8. Claudia Leopold, Olivia Brokaw, and Grace Rademacher 9. Andrew Antonucci, Eugene Yoon, Morgan Cutts, and Evan Park

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We will miss you, 2018!

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Andover’s newest alumni

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Class of 2018

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Countries represented by graduates

1,364 Candles lit during Baccalaureate

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Abbot Academy roses purchased for graduates

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Student cellists performing at the Commencement Concert

By the Numbers

550 Cupcakes served at Convocation

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Clan MacPherson bagpipers who led the Commencement procession

4,200 Tea sandwiches served at Commencement reception

3,500 Chairs set up in front of Samuel Phillips Hall for Commencement

330 Diplomas awarded

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Breyanna Watson shares a hug at Commencement

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