Speaker Arshay Cooper Sets Tone for Spring Semester

Snow fell steadily across the Northfield Mount Hermon campus Wednesday morning as students, newly arrived for the start of the spring semester, wended their way up the slope to Memorial Chapel.

Despite the winter scene outside, students received a warm welcome inside the chapel from guest speaker, bestselling author, and NMH trustee Arshay Cooper.

Fresh off a book tour promoting his latest work, “Let Me Be Real With You: Inspiring Lessons on Living a Life of Service,” the rower and motivational speaker shared insights from his life and work on the value of self-care, building support networks, and seizing opportunities.

Cooper was introduced by Janelli Garcia Bravo ’26, an NMH rower and recipient of the Arshay Cooper Scholarship, which provides financial support to rowers from underserved communities who demonstrate rowing and academic excellence. He began his presentation by recounting his journey from poverty and self-doubt while growing up on Chicago’s West Side to becoming the captain of the first all-Black rowing team in the country.

Throughout his address, Cooper emphasized the importance of taking action in life, even if it means “doing it afraid.”

“Every time you confront a fear, life gets a lot less scary,” he said. “When it comes to joy, peace, success, there are some things in this world you won't see unless you do it. …If you want justice for your community or a peaceful neighborhood; if you want to be a lawyer, doctor, Olympian or judge, you can't just talk about it. You can't just scream about it. You can't just shout about it. You have to get up and go after it.”

Weaving a narrative drawn from personal experience, allegory, and the relationships he has developed through his work at NMH, Cooper underscored the need for a holistic approach to wellness.

“If I could go back and tell my 15-year-old self anything, it would be ‘You do not have to fight alone,’” Cooper told students. “I had a hard time including myself in the work that I was doing. So I began to write, and I began to learn, and I began to be a better angel to myself, so I could be a better angel to others.”

He also spoke about his affinity for the school and its mission, noting that while there is still work to be done, the opportunities available at NMH reflect “the world I want to be in.”

Cooper urged students to take advantage of those opportunities, lean on one another and the broader community for support, and “take full advantage of the time-outs and the huddles” to reflect, regroup, and prepare for what comes next.

“When I turn on ESPN and see a football player running in for a touchdown and everyone's celebrating, I say to myself, ‘That just doesn't happen overnight,’” he said. “We all have family members and friends, grandmothers and mothers, teachers and others who take the hits just so we can get another yard ahead.”

Cooper closed his remarks by reiterating the role each student plays in shaping NMH.

“The joy, the smiles I get when I come to NMH, the love I feel when I see some of you guys — I want every young person to experience that,” Cooper said. “Each of you brings something to NMH that no one ever has, and that's you.”

Head of School Brian Hargrove concluded the all-school meeting by echoing Cooper’s themes and connecting them to NMH’s annual celebration of the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. later this month.

“We are in a world right now where it feels like, at times, people don't want to love one another,” Hargrove said. “We must have faith in the future: the faith to believe that we can solve this problem, the faith to believe that as we struggle to solve this problem, we do not struggle alone. As we start 2026, let's do it with a lot of light. Let's go show the love that really only we can bring here at NMH.”

Afterward, a long line of students and staff members lingered to greet Cooper and share their reflections on his remarks and his new book.

“I loved it,” Molly Sisson ’26 said of Cooper’s presentation. “I definitely heard what he was talking about, how to bring change in life is to love other people. There’s a very biblical aspect to that. I thought it was really beautiful.”

“This is my third year here, and I would say it's one of the best speeches I've heard,” agreed Eric Zhao ’27. “How he said the reason why you love others is not because we expect a certain response from them, how even when people hated him, he still expressed love — it's a powerful message.”

 —Max Hunt

Photos by Matthew Cavanaugh Photography. See more scenes from Arshay Cooper's visit on Flickr.