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From the Head of School
Letter from the Head of School
Last September, when I addressed this year’s student body, faculty, and staff, as well as many parents and friends of Pennington at our annual Convocation ceremony, my speech centered on the theme of perseverance and grit. Students had begun the year working together in groups to build and launch model rockets capable of carrying a fragile glass ornament up into the air and providing a way for it to return safely to the ground, an exercise created to acknowledge the anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon. Given no instructions to follow, students had to embrace trial and error to get it right. Each brought different talents to the task at hand, and many modifications had to be made along the way. But by the end of the afternoon, there was much to celebrate: our students in grades six through twelve had worked creatively and collaboratively to achieve a meaningful goal. And at the close of Convocation, I offered this quote attributed to Winston Churchill:
I reminded our community that in most instances, noteworthy accomplishments do not happen in a vacuum but rather are the result of a community that encourages, supports, challenges, and inspires each of us to give our best. Our outstanding faculty work tirelessly, creatively, and with great passion to help our students find their own individual excellence every single day. As author Zig Ziglar said,
I challenged all of us to reach this year for a goal we believe in and that we find important or even difficult, to go outside of our comfort zones and push beyond what we know we can do and imagine all that we might do. This “growth mindset” helps each of us persevere through the setbacks that we will inevitably encounter.
When I said these things in September, I never imagined the enormous and life-changing challenges we would face together this year. All of us have had to reach beyond in myriad ways both large and small. The COVID-19 crisis changed who we can see, where we can go, and how we manage our day-to-day lives. It turned bedrooms into classrooms and laptops into whiteboards. It forced us to distance ourselves physically not only from our School and our campus but also from loved ones, sometimes even in our own homes. But this virus did not succeed in isolating us.
Beyond the pandemic, our society and our community became engaged in an opportunity to uphold our nation's professed ideals and live out Pennington's core values by challenging the status quo of systemic racism in the United States. The murder of Mr. George Floyd (as well as the many other incidents of the unjust killing of Black citizens) was a spark that ignited feelings of anger, fear, sadness, and hopelessness. I recently spoke with the co-presidents of our Black Student Union and listened to what they had to say about their Pennington experience and the hopes and goals they have for our School moving forward. Over the summer, we will open up opportunities for our alumni of color to join us for frank conversations about being Black at Pennington so that we can better understand their experiences through their eyes. Listening to and learning from our current students and alumni will help us make more substantive and sustainable change at Pennington. I want every single one of our students and faculty to have the tools to become leaders for justice and equality—and to use them to make a difference at Pennington and for our country.
I invite you to embrace this really challenging moment with me and with our faculty and staff. Systemic racism and implicit bias are just a couple of the realities that we all need to confront and to change. Our School’s core values of honor, virtue, and especially humility are guideposts that serve to remind us to always strive for individual excellence, understanding, and justice: as citizens; as family members; as friends; as allies; and as human beings. Pennington will always stand beside you to help make a better world. When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters; one represents danger and one represents opportunity. John F. Kennedy said these words in the Convocation address of the United Negro College Fund in 1959. Then-Senator Kennedy was using his voice to chart a new course for this nation.
Now we, too, are faced with a turning point in our history. I believe this pandemic and the broader cultural moment has also helped us to become more acutely aware of what is important, and the need for us to be active participants in changing the course of our lives. As JFK said, when faced with a crisis, be aware of the danger but don’t fail to recognize the opportunity. I believe our collective focus has become sharper, more acute and I don’t want to lose that. We all have hope for this generation to be the pre-eminent leaders who will shape a healthy, equitable, and progressive future for our world.
This was not the spring I imagined for our Class of 2020 or for any of us. We have all been rocketed into circumstances that are challenging and unpredictable. But I know that working together, with perseverance, grit, and determination, we can help each other find our way forward. As you will see in these pages, we worked together and accomplished much these past months. I hope you will share the deep sense of pride, hope, and admiration I hold for every member of our Pennington family.
Yours in Pennington,
William S. Hawkey
