Convocation 2024

Hello, friends. It is so wonderful to be here today as we formally greet the new school year and one another. 

At NMH on Stage, I had the opportunity to share a few reflections on the year ahead and my hopes for us. I noted that, while this year will certainly include its fair share of hard work, I also know that it will include many individual and collective moments of joy and celebration as we move together through our Northfield Mount Hermon journey. 

As I have reflected on our first few days together, I am struck by our collective energy and enthusiasm as we start the school year. There is a palpable positivity, hopefulness and anticipation for all that the year will bring. 

A colleague asked me the other day, in a rare quieter moment in Alumni Hall, what I hoped we would accomplish this year as a community. My answer – and I’m sure this is more succinct than I offered in the moment – is that our NMH community seizes this moment to be our best in holding community ESPECIALLY as we navigate what we all recognize is the muchness of election season in the US and elusive peace in conflicts around the world. At NMH, we have the capacity to examine hard questions, to critically challenge assumptions and biases, to listen — really listen – to and benefit from diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and to emerge as wiser, more thoughtful, and more inspired individuals and, most certainly, as a stronger, more unified community. 

In fact, this is what our learning theme this year – citizenship and action – is all about as we consider what citizenship in a community means and what translates into action for each of us today and in our future. 

There are libraries full of texts and examinations on the question of what it means to be a citizen. I hope – and expect – many of you will dig further into these questions and this body of work as you continue your studies. Yet, for our purposes today, I want us to really focus on the question of what it means to be a citizen of the NMH community.

What are we looking for? What do we expect of ourselves and others? I would like to offer this baseline for us. We are all full members of this community. We all belong here. And we all have shared privileges and responsibilities as citizens at Northfield Mount Hermon. The privileges are to learn, live, work, play and grow together in a community with remarkable resources dedicated to our intellectual, emotional, social and physical well-being. The responsibilities are to live our school values – inclusivity, learning for life, and service – as we engage in all that NMH offers. 

As we turn to action – and what that means to be a student at NMH — let us consider what tools we need to be most effective and to thrive. I would suggest that all of us can find these tools in our classrooms, on the stage, in the dorm, and on the fields of play. The NMH education is all about shaping the habits of the head, heart, and hand that equip us with the knowledge and wisdom, the work ethic, and the inspiration to take on the most difficult of endeavors. As we activate these tools, we find purpose in our potential; we are called to be the best versions of ourselves as we stand up as citizens who learn with passion, lead with intention, and act with humanity. 

So, let us understand, appreciate and agree on the ideals of citizenship at NMH and what action will mean for us. We all have a stake in what unfolds here; we are our neighbor’s keeper and they are ours. We are in this endeavor – our time at NMH – together and our paths are all inextricably connected in powerful ways across our campus as citizens of the NMH community. 

Let me close with the final verse of Maya Angelous’s poem "On the Pulse of a Morning," a poem she read at President Clinton’s first inauguration. I believe these words speak to our school community’s hopefulness, our opportunity, and our shared responsibility to one another. 

Here, on the pulse of this new day 
You may have the grace to look up and out 
And into your sister’s eyes, and into your brother’s face, your country
And say simply 
Very simply 
With hope — 
Good morning. 

Friends, let’s have a great year together. Let us embrace and leverage all that NMH offers, hold one another close, lift up each other, and greet every morning with the courage to be the best version of ourselves.