Our graduations are always emotionally draining, and Saturday's commencement exercises were a lovefest in light rain. It is gratifying to have so many alumni returning, just to be a part of something very special they once knew. We are a community with peculiar, beautiful traditions: the steel drum band plays, faculty are recognized, graduates bring token gifts (like tennis balls inscribed with notes of thanks.) In traditional Lakota tradition, members of David Wolfe's family tied the eagle feather into his hair at this rite of passage.

With Tim Norris's retirement from the classroom, it was time to acknowledge Chris, Kit, Tim and Suzy for their immeasureable contribution.

When young David Fowler became Head of a small, struggling school in 1971, he appointed Nance Barrett as Assistant to the Head. Thirty-two years later, she received the staff award that will carry her name in the future. But who knew that David Fowler was back from Santa Fe to surprise her?!

It's one thing to be challenged to assume personal responsibility from a successful CEO, athlete or politician, but there's nowhere to hide when it comes from a man who works 75 hours per week, intervening in the troubled lives of youth on the streets of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Here, in a city with the highest incidence of auto theft in the United States and a high school drop out rate that exceeds 50%, Steve Kelley emotes nothing but positive energy, conviction and hope. How much more powerful were his words when spoken in front of more than a dozen young men and women who know--through immediate, personal experience--the truth.