There are two inevitabilities in the course of a school year—a beginning and an end. Each comes with its own excitements and anxieties. In a previous Connector, I focused on the beginning of the year—new faces, new classes, new courses, and new challenges. Since that time, we’ve been preparing to roll out a new and expansive website and printed materials that will better connect us to our past, present, and future students and families. In the process of gathering photos and testimonials from members of recent graduating classes, I was struck by the similarity of their “young” reminiscences to those from alumni who are many years past their graduation.
Now, as I focus on the end of the year in this Connector, I am hoping that you might reconnect with your Erskine experiences through the reflections of some of our most recent graduates. For instance:
A 2009 graduate proudly waves her Yale (the university that she attends) pennant and credits Erskine Academy as being “the place to grow to become a well prepared student for the highly selective college.”
From Dartmouth College an alumna reports that “EA quite literally brought to fruition in me the ideal proclaimed by its motto: ‘Mens sana in corpore sano’ (A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body).”
After completing her third year at Bates College, an alumna writes, “EA encourages and inspires you to pursue what initially seems so far out of reach.”
Across the board, the testimonials we received share an appreciation for a talented, outstanding corps of teachers and staff who work for student success and are committed to doing whatever it takes to deliver students to a future rich with opportunity. And from nearly every exchange, whether from a recent graduate or longtime alum, I learn of their deep appreciation and love for this institution—one to which they owe a lot for who and where they are today.
And so, we have graduated the Class of 2010. During Senior Week, we learned from our seniors of their appreciation for family, friends, teachers, and of course Erskine Academy. In my formal address to them, I reminded them of what I told them as freshmen: Erskine Academy is not a place that you go through to get over; it is a place that you go through to get somewhere else, and that you arrive there better as a result of your high school experience. I suspect that when our graduates visit Erskine years from now, perhaps during Reunion 20??, their achievements and accomplishments and what they have become as adults will tell me that this is so.
And speaking of speaking to the graduates of Erskine Academy, the purpose of your Erskine Academy experience would not have been fully realized if you left without recognizing the grab bag of gifts and gaps with which you entered high school. We hope that during your time with us you identified your true talents and that now you find out how to use them to do well and to do some good. This is what distinguishes us from those who learn and work at other schools—we are about doing good for others as we are doing well for ourselves.
Please go forward with the confidence that you shall succeed. You have our best wishes for doing well and our hope that you will make a commitment to doing some good.
Good luck, good fortune, and may God bless you always.