Yesterday morning I attended the Senior Recognition Ceremony in the Meetinghouse, a beautiful tradition in which the faculty readpersonal citations to every member of the class in the company of their family, friends and the entire Upper School community. So many threads of the AFS experience come together in this gathering, just as our seniors are ready to take a major step forward out of this community. Filled with love, laughter and a deep sense of community, it is a capstone moment to be sure, highlighting several aspects of our school.

The depth to which each student is known and valued by their teachers rings clearly through each written tribute. While each member of the faculty typically reads one or two of the messages during the assembly, the tributes are from the faculty as a whole, compiled and then crafted over several weeks. The tributes reflect joy in who each student is, in their accomplishments and contributions, their growth and triumph over challenges. They also reflect this community’s obvious love of words, culture, intellect and playfulness, a key element of the relationship between students and their teachers.

It struck me powerfully yesterday how many of the tributes focused on leadership roles and contributions to the community. Students at AFS are given myriad opportunities to lead, play critical roles, be depended upon, take responsibility and work hard to make things happen. This year’s graduating seniors have clearly made an active impact on their world, whether it’s through creating a regional diversity conference, arranging weekly visits to make dinner and eat with the homeless men of Old First Reformed Church, designing and building a hydroponics system for the community, creating a Junior Mathletes program for Lower Schoolers, managing an extensive peer tutoring program, serving as captains of teams, leading the Quaker student government, clerking the Discipline Advisory Board, editing publications like Outward Bound and the Whole Tree, and on and on. They are leaving a powerful legacy here and they fully expect to play similar roles of leadership and contribution in college and in the world beyond. They have not only the skills, but the ingrained orientation to lead, build and do.

In the delight the students showed in each other’s recognitions, I saw another deep value of our community: students at AFS know that they are enriched and made larger by the gifts of their classmates rather than diminished by the accomplishments of others. This generosity of spirit toward others, cultivated over their years at AFS, is a wonderful gift to our students that will be a source of joy, connection to others and also a valuable trait of leadership for their lives ahead.

This time in the Meetinghouse makes visible the whole community—parents, teachers and friends—that has made such growth and accomplishment possible for our seniors. It is a bittersweet moment for us all. With every graduating class, the faculty and I wonder if we’ll ever see such a group again, and I know that parents are keenly aware that moving on from this community is a significant life change. And yet, the classes to come are well into a similarly transformative journey and our seniors are rightly headed off toward a very exciting next stage of their lives.

I am grateful that traditions like Senior Recognition give us a moment to see clearly the gifts of our work together.