St. Margaret's Family Gathers to Celebrate the Class of 2011

When you graduate from a high school that’s connected to a middle school, that’s connected to a grammar school, that’s connected to a preschool, you get to know your classmates really well.

You get to know them so well, they become family.

The family of gathered Saturday evening to reminisce, to celebrate and to send off its class of 2011 into the world post-high school. Of the 103 graduates, 18 have been at St. Margaret’s since preschool, and another six since kindergarten.

That kind of history comes with a lot of memories, fond and comic.

Blakely Collier, the student body president, told the gathering that she didn’t realize what belonging to the class of 2011 meant until she saw a folder in third grade that had “2011” on it and asked her teacher her about it.

“The year was 2001. We could quickly do the math. We had 10 years to go. A little boy by the name of Max Carpenter said, ‘It will never end!’ ” The audience roared. Carpenter was graduating Saturday, too.

“The thought that this will never end has crossed my mind,” Collier said. “But the amount of times I wished it would never end greatly outnumbered it.”

Collier described the students, faculty and staff a “chaotic, crazy, dysfunctional family at times,” a family in which lower school teachers helped them when they forgot their red, uniform sweaters and upper school faculty helped them select universities.

Johnny Li—the most accomplished student in the 32-year history, according to Headmaster Marcus D. Hurlbut—was this year’s valedictorian. Besides all his accomplishments, which include finishing all of the available upper school courses in math and continuing his math studies at UC Irvine by seventh grade, achieving perfect scores on multiple portions of the SAT, being named a National AP Scholar by clinching a top score on eight Advanced Placement tests, being named a fellow at the Davidson Institute for researching cancerous tumor growth, he’s also really funny.

Taking out his speech, a scroll unfurled to the ground, Li began his thank-yous.

“I want to thank all my friends for always being there,” Li said. “I want to thank my Facebook friends for always being there. I want to thank my sister for almost always being there. I want to thank my frog for always being there, up until a couple of months ago.”  

Li pointed out that up until very recently, he had long hair. He and a friend headed to Supercuts, where he figures he lost a pound of hair. Now he feels “cold and exposed.” In the same way, St. Margaret’s graduates will go through their own metaphorical haircut as they head off to college. Among the destinations: Stanford, Harvard, Boston College, Dartmouth, Due, Purdue and Georgetown.

As some of them travel to the cold environs of the East Coast, “all the Billabong hoodies in the world won’t keep us warm, but we’ll survive,” Li said, encouraging his classmates to adapt to their new surroundings.

Jeffry Stodard, a former member of the Board of Trustees for the school, gave the keynote address. Just as his son, Zachary, was graduating, he too, was graduating because after so many years of being involved the school, his youngest is off to college.

Stoddard, a real estate developer, a recipient of the outstanding alumni award from the University of Idaho and with a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard, admitted to being really nervous about being the keynote speaker. But he decided to say, “What the heck. What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

Stoddard acknowledged that probably the worst thing that could happen is that he would embarrass his son. He decided to risk it.

In the same way, he encouraged the class of 2011. “Do what you’re afraid to do, that might make you uncomfortable,” he urged. “You need to take personal risks, time to explore … to write your own script, to become the person you want to be.”

Afterward, Hurlbut asked Zach how his dad did. He gave him the thumbs up.

Then one by one, wearing their white gowns, the boys with crimson boutonnieres and many of the girls in 4-inch platform heels, came up to receive their diplomas.  The 18 who had been at St. Margaret’s since preschool received theirs from Ingrid Andrews, director of the Early Childhood Development Center.  Another 12 received their diplomas from their parents, who were either on the faculty or a member of the board.

The class of 2011 then one last time sang their alma mater, about the school of the tartan and the cross. They passed through arches of flowers, through a path flanked by applauding teachers and headed off into their new lives.