2024 Graduation Remarks

Members of the Class of 2024: By tradition, it is now my privilege and honor, as principal, to deliver a farewell address.

I would like to begin where commencement addresses often end, by saying congratulations.

You came to Exeter to learn and grow, have fun, make lifelong friends, pursue your passions, and lay the surest foundation for the rest of your lives — the surest foundation for leading purposeful lives.

You have done all that, and you have done it well. In all your endeavors – academic, artistic, athletic, and more – you have worked hard, aspired to excellence, and achieved excellence.

Your success here is not measured by championships, prizes or awards, but you have indeed won many championships and prestigious competitions, demonstrating that the teaching and learning that occurs here, across all disciplines, is at the highest levels.

You have found joy in your activities and accomplishments and grown in ways that you likely could not have imagined when you first arrived. That is true whether you have been here one year or four, or in between. However long you have been here, you have made the most of the opportunities presented to you and you have succeeded.

Along the way, you have formed deep friendships that will last your lifetimes. I am confident that the friendships that you have formed here will mean as much to you over time as any individual or group accomplishments.

I am proud of all that you have accomplished, but even more proud of how you have contributed to the life of the school, and how you have supported each other. I don’t quite know how you came to be seniors so quickly, but here you are, ready to graduate, and more than ready for the next phase of your education and the challenges that lie ahead.

Your time here has not always been easy. Many of you arrived in September 2020 amidst a global pandemic. Participating in Harkness classes remotely from your dormitory rooms, library carrels or from home was difficult. Building community while coping with COVID restrictions was hard.

We experienced a terrible loss when Matthew Clemson died last year. You responded with compassion, empathy and grace, supporting each other and caring for one another. You honored Matthew’s life and supported his family.

Notwithstanding the cliché, we do not live in an Exeter bubble. We follow the news, hear from loved ones near and far, and care about events in the United States and around the world. This year the events in the Middle East, Sudan, Ukraine and other areas have weighed heavily on many in our community as we are confronted daily by news of war, violence, disease, hunger, poverty, and injustice. We care about the future of our planet and want to know what we can do to make the world a safer, healthier and better place for all.

You have to decide how you want to respond to these and other challenges that you see in the world every day.

You have to decide how you want to make the world, the communities in which you live, and the places where you work, better than you found them — not just for some, but for all.

Our core value of non sibi expresses our belief that wisdom gained here should be used for the good of others as well as for oneself. We seek to graduate young people “whose ambitions and actions are inspired by their interest in others and the world around them.” We boldly proclaim, “Exonians are motivated by this philosophy to face the challenges of their day.”

You have attended many assemblies in which alumni have shared their stories about how they have confronted the challenges of their day. It is your turn now to begin writing your own non sibi stories.

It is not the goal or responsibility of your generation to develop final answers to the challenges that you see around you. Your goal is to develop the best answers that you can for your generation, with the hope and understanding that future generations will build upon and improve those answers.

Author and journalist Monica Guzman told you in assembly in September that “everyone in this room is wrong about something, you just don’t know what it is.”

Similarly, American historian and philosopher Will Durant once said, “Education is a progressive discovery of [one’s] own ignorance.”

With those thoughts in mind, I urge you to be respectful of strongly-held values and skeptical of strongly-held opinions. Are they grounded in truth? Do they respect the dignity and equal worth of every human life? Are they grounded in an understanding of our common humanity, and do they account for all lives equally?

At Exeter, we seek to inspire students to pursue complex truths. We do this through cultivation of critical thinking, rigorous inquiry and thoughtful discourse. We don’t seek simple narratives when complex truths are required to understand the world and how we can be of service to it. Let your thirst for knowledge and goodness and your pursuit of complex truths be what drives your education not just in college, but throughout your lives.

Toward that end, as you go forward in life, continue to seek opportunities, as you have had here, to learn with and from others whose ideas, experiences and perspectives differ from your own. At Exeter, we understand that “we are all better equipped to learn and to lead when our thoughts are tested by others, particularly by those whose ideas, perspectives, experiences or identities differ from our own.” This requires cultivating the empathy, understanding, and respect necessary to truly open our minds to thoughts, perspective and experiences that differ from our own.

It is all too easy in this world, and it may be all too easy in college, to surround yourself with persons who think just like you. That might be a good way to find agreement, but it is not a good way to learn, and in fact can be quite limiting to your education, and undermine the education process.

By contrast, learning with and from others whose ideas and perspectives differ from your own might seem hard at times, but it is the most interesting way to learn, the most fun way to learn, and the most effective and rewarding way to learn. In short, it is the best way to learn, and likely the only way to solve some of our world’s most intractable problems.

Remember, wherever you find yourselves next year, people will expect you to be intelligent and capable; they will also be watching to see if you are kind and have humility.

Class of 2024, I am coming to the end of my remarks. Soon, with diplomas in hand, you will be fellow Exeter alumni. In that sense, you and I will be peers, members of the same extended Exeter community that spans generations.

I hope you will leave Exeter as I did many years ago – with joy and satisfaction in your accomplishments, a deep sense of gratitude for your time here, and, importantly, with a strong sense of belonging.

I am sure you have strong feelings of gratitude for your families, teachers and all the other adults who have supported you during your time here. I hope you also feel gratitude to prior generations of Exonians who have helped make your Exeter experiences possible. We should be grateful to those who came before us and accept our place and responsibility as part of the history of this great school.

During your prep year, when you went home for Thanksgiving and did not return until mid-February, I told you, “Exeter lives within us and forms around us, no matter the distance between us.” That remains true today. You will always be Exonians and you will always belong here.

I certainly am going to miss the Class of 2024. I will always remember the joy that you brought to our school and all your activities. I will eagerly wait to see what lies ahead for you. I have every confidence in your abilities and inclination to make a positive difference in the world. In the years to come, I hope you will come back often to tell your stories.

Members of the Class of 2024, I wish you success and fulfillment in all your endeavors.

I will close where I started, by saying again, congratulations! Thank you.

To all who are assembled here today, and to all who are watching from afar, with excitement, admiration and joy, I present to you our newest alumni, the Class of 2024!

Congratulations!