Greg Schneider, Head of School - Presentation of the Class of 2018

The Class of 2018 and Me

Greg Schneider - Commencement

While I couldn't quite muster the courage to change the program, my comments today would probably be more appropriately titled something like: The Class of 2018 and Me.

President Jalbert, Members of the Board of Trustees, Parents, Grandparents, family members and friends, it is my honor to welcome you to the 227th Commencement of Berwick Academy in honor of the Class of 2018. We now begin a magical ceremony filled with an intentional balance of tradition and intimacy. We value the aspects of this gathering that offer a formal end point to our graduates, and yet we also seek smiles, laughter, and perhaps a few tears along the way if we do a particularly good job. There will be no shortage of great material, as we celebrate a group today that is ready to launch and change the world. It would be impossible to avoid acknowledging that this is a particularly emotional day for me, as I am celebrating my final Berwick Academy graduation as well. I hope the class of 2018 will indulge me in becoming a bit of an imposter graduate with them today; I feel lucky to share this stage with such an amazing group of young people.

So let us begin where this school always begins and ends: its students. The class of 2018 is a spirited bunch, a group of young men and women who have helped us laugh and grow in amazing ways. These seniors kicked off the fall season with incredibly positive energy and spirit. We enjoyed amazing Blue and White weekends, some great coffee houses, and more than a few laughs in assembly from Ben's relentless onslaught of bad jokes. Boys and Girls Soccer found their way to NEPSAC births, and we spent many a beautiful afternoon out on the fields together. The drama department helped bring "She Kills Monsters" to life on our stage, a production that made me feel particularly old as the references seemingly came from my own high school experience -Dungeons and Dragons, Mountain Dew, and even the Smashing Pumpkins were all present.

The winter brought college applications and a bit more buckling down academically. We had one of the coldest Decembers anyone can ever remember, but it did little to impact your spirits. Winter carnival lifted our hearts as you donned ridiculous skis and clothing in the obstacle course. While the outdoor rink may have failed, the sled design for Acaderod was first rate. Boys basketball found its way to the NEPSAC tourney once again, Boys Swimming brought home another EIL title, and Megabowl saw another historic chapter unfold. Bye Bye Birdie brought us back in time with a memorable trip to the Ed Sullivan show. And I remember sitting with you at your 100 Days luncheon like it was yesterday, a pit beginning to form in my stomach that the end was in sight for all of us. Somewhere during this winter journey we learned of a tragic school shooting in Florida, forcing all of us to hold each other a bit more tightly physically and emotionally on this Hilltop.

We soldiered on into spring. It started with two storms heading into break that eclipsed 14 inches in both cases. Spring was sluggish to get rolling but eventually came on with great resolve. Boys Lacrosse found their way into post-season play and baseball captured the elusive EIL tournament title; we celebrated another remarkable Innovation Celebration. Suddenly it was Senior Arts night and your last day of classes. Sitting with some of your parents, I noticed the tears beginning to roll.

After watching Bayou's piano performance in assembly that last day in May, my own tears emerged for the first time. And I will never forget Ben's final speech to the community, reminding us why the Berwick bubble is both something to treasure and yet something to pierce with our leaving today. Perhaps it has been on account of my own nostalgia, but I have been moved by your reverie. You probably don't know how much I enjoyed your raucous rendition of "Lean on Me" that happened in the parking lot near my house as I was trying to fall asleep one late evening just a few weeks ago.

For ten previous graduation speeches, I have tried to tackle some theme of educational import, stretching to connect my personal story to the world somehow in a well-intentioned attempt to challenge our graduates and elevate the discourse.

Standing before you today, I am not convinced that this has been a particularly good strategy. I say that knowing that as I approach somewhere around 800 Berwick graduates in my tenure - I am confident not one has remembered a single word that I have said on this particular day. So I thought I might take a slightly different, if not more self-indulgent, tact this morning and just reflect a bit upon what I love about this place. The intent is to do this with our graduates rather than/or them or for me. For the class of 2018, I want us to think together about how our relationship - yours and mine - will continue to evolve and grow with Berwick Academy for the duration of our lifetimes. I choose to believe, for both of us, today is so much more of a beginning than an ending to our Berwick stories.

From the first day I stepped foot on this campus, I have probed and admired this school's apparent paradoxes. I can say now that I believe I have probably contributed to them. They have challenged me. They have perplexed me. And I now use my favorite "Brad Fletcherism" in saying that it will be the overlapping generations of people in this place that will maintain the tensions inherent in these Berwick paradoxes for quite some time. So let me offer a working definition for paradox to set the stage here: "a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition then when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true."

Berwick Academy is both elite and humble. When one steps foot on this campus as I did in 2006 for the first time, it's impossible to be unmoved by the grand physical place and the learning environment we enjoy here. In fact, this year Architectural Digest named ours the most beautiful private school campus in the State of Maine. People have built this place for you, for us, over 227 years of history. Our campus is as impressive as any in the PK-12 day school universe, and I have seen many in my day. On the other hand, Berwick's history stems from non-traditional roots as a public school. Its alumni are not particularly wealthy people in general, and its endowment is thus modest - a reality that was evident to me most days during my eleven years. Resources at Berwick are adequate but not abundant compared to wealthier schools. This humility allows us to garner the absolute maximum out of what we do have. We are frugal, crafty, and resourceful. I have come to admire this tension in powerful ways as a leader.

Berwick is both authentic to what it is and aspirational as to what it might become. We have worked hard to raise the sights of this institution for a decade while trying to honor its soul. I would suggest that BA's fundamental strength today can be seen in its unwillingness to stand still. Curriculum 2020, Innovation, Cultural Competency - I will spare you the laundry list of examples that I know students often experience as marketing jargon. And yet, when people interview for jobs here they describe you, our students, with words like "polite" or "willing." This is a caring place with little pretense, and we don't pretend to be something we are not. My suspicion is that the EIL had to do away with the league sportsmanship award during my second year because our school had won the honor so many times in a row - a trend that began long before my time here.

Berwick Academy, and its class of 2018, are both driven to excellence and committed to balance. I am not sure that I have seen a range of students in other communities who are collectively and consistently so willing to work hard - on projects, papers, and other things they are asked to do by the adults. There is stress here for sure, but it takes on a different flavor then what I have seen other places. As a PK-12 community, this is a place that values family time and does its best to protect that. High School students bring their grandparents here in droves. Haven't seen that elsewhere. We have a wellness center, and we can see when mental and physical health trumps everything else - whether you are an employee or a student. And while I worry I have not always been a particularly strong role model for this sense of "balance," I do know that I have been willingly indoctrinated into this blend of work ethic and perspective. It has changed me, and I am a better man for it.

Berwick Academy is both competitive and supportive. Our kids apply to the most selective college in the country - some are admitted and others are not. Our athletic teams aspire to, and often deliver, great success. Kids practice hard. Dramatic productions are ambitious - and people have to deal with the disappointment of not getting a role or not making a team in this community. Students are cut from things they desire and not everyone receives a ribbon. And yet the class of 2018, like so many classes before them, has supported each other in such compelling ways - through the college process, through life challenges, through worries and fears. Everyone has a role at this school, and it pushes us to be the best version of our self - as a student, as an athlete, and even as a Head of School. Yet we come to understand and appreciate that the success of our peers is just that - a success of a friend to be celebrated rather than a commentary on our own performance to be internalized in negative or passive aggressive ways. Not all kids your age get that from their school, and not all employees get it either.

For me, leaving Berwick Academy today also means leaving as a parent for my children. This has been a painfully hard realization for the Schneiders over the course of this year. This place has helped form, shape, nurture, and celebrate my entire family in ways that I can never fully describe nor repay. I won't try to do that now. I do hope that you, our graduates, can feel some of that level of deep gratitude with me today, and that you will feel this sense even more deeply over time. All of us appearing on this stage have a duty to say thank you - thank you to these teachers, these students, and this school who have helped make us who we are.

Just a few final comments on where we go as leaders from here - the Class of 2018 and me, that is. Famous leadership author Jim Collins differentiates between Type I and Type II leadership. Type II leadership can manage and lead deftly as long as one holds the top role in an organization. But Type I leadership flows from a culture within an organization where success carries forward long after certain leaders have left the building, so to speak. Time will tell on the class of 2018 and me, I suppose, but I like our chances. And I say that not based on anything we have done or how deeply I respect these particular graduates but more based on the quality of the students and adults who will make up this community moving forward. Still, I expect us to be not merely interested observers in Berwick's future but active contributors to its future success.

The value of the diploma we give you today should increase over time - and you have a role in that based on where you choose to go from here. I have no doubt whatsoever that the value of the Berwick diploma in the world of higher education and the global workplace has more value for you than it did for the graduates of 1968 or even 1988. But it is not a foregone conclusion that this trend will continue. Berwick faces real challenges as it considers its graduating classes of say 2048 or 2078. You, as alumni, will play a key role in that future. Giving back matters deeply to schools like this one. Just remember that all of you will play a role in the lives of future Berwick graduates, just as those before you have made this day possible for each of you. For each of us, I should say.

Perhaps our final paradox today brings us right back to Berwick's mission - its reason for existing in the first place. It is a tension that I will miss deeply as I move forward. It has become foundational to the way I see education, to the way I see children, and to the way I see myself. While perhaps not truly a paradox, we can see this mission blossoming today as we stare out at your 77 faces, even as your minds race with thoughts like "can we just get on with this?" and "when will gschneids get over himself?" We see you, our graduates, as the living embodiment of virtue and useful knowledge. This school is strong because we have leaned into these words more deeply in the past decade, and I hope people will lean into them even more closely in the years ahead.

Ultimately, it is possible to be both. It is possible to be a person who stands for words like integrity, character, and honesty. It is possible to know, even at age 18, that these things matter more than any piece of content you have learned here. And it is also possible to know that the knowledge must be useful. And that you must play a role in actually making it useful in the future. It is possible that you can see connections between your time here and your time in college. It is possible that you, our students, can see ways that you will actually apply your wisdom to make the world more hopeful and more prosperous. It is possible to be a person who embodies both virtue and useful knowledge, a fact that Berwick Academy has proven now for 227 years.

Today Berwick Academy's senior class, and its exceedingly lame duck Head of School, enter a new world together. We do so buoyed by the conviction that these words are, quite simply, part of who we have become. Congratulations and good luck.

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