LEAD LIKE A WOMAN
Emma grads say farewell to school, hello to world
TROY, N.Y.» A group of 90 graduates were honored on Sunday at the 204th commencement ceremony at Emma Willard School.
Instead of caps and gowns, the girls wore white dresses while graduating from the private boarding school located in Troy’s Mt. Ida neighborhood.
The ceremony was held on the historic campus green, where faculty, family members and friends gathered to celebrate Emma Willard School’s Class of 2018.
For more than 200 years, Emma Willard School has proudly aimed to foster in each young woman a love of learning, the habits of an intellectual life, and the character, moral strength, and qualities of leadership to serve and shape her world.
The students who graduated on Sunday are a diverse class hailing from 15 U.S. states and 15 countries.
Throughout their time at Emma, this class has
achieved many accomplishments. Three quarters of the girls played on an athletic team, 71 pursued a personal interest via Emma’s Practicum program, 33 completed an in-depth capstone signature project and 50 led clubs and on-campus organizations, including Amnesty International, De- mocracy Matters, UNICEF, and School Council.
Members of the Class of 2018 were recognized as state champion in the high jump, world champion in weightlifting, National Merit Scholarship fi- nalists and took first place in the New York State High School Business Plan Competition.
During the commencement ceremony, two more awards were presented. The Jameson Adkins Baxter Award went to Kat Fousek and the Clementine Miller Tangeman Award recipient was Lilly Pickett.
The 2018 commencement speaker Dr. Susan Scrimshaw, former president of The Sage Colleges, another historic Troy-based institute for women’s education. Scrimshaw spoke to the graduates about “Leading Like a Woman,” which she says involves emotional intelligence, ingenuity, courage and strength.
“You are graduating from one of the most prestigious girls’ schools in the country, but you are now no longer girls,” Scrimshaw told the Emma Willard School Class of 2018. “You leave here as emerging adults, with a great readiness to build your futures.”
In her first year as the 17th Head of Emma Willard School, Jennifer Clark Rao told the girls, “Class of 2018, you may be assured that you have left some mark on this place, and we believe that this place has left its mark on you.”
Those at the ceremony also had the chance to hear from an Emma student herself. “Class of 2018, we finally made it,” said senior speaker Nanase Hayami to her fellow graduates.
A native of Japan, Hayami spoke of her personal four-year transformation as a student at Emma Willard School.
“We are all Emma. Emma is our home,” Hayami told her classmates. However, as they move forward into their futures, Hayami left her peers with some words of encouragement: “Class of 2018. Show the world what true love and kindness is. Show the world that there is no limit to what women can do. Show the world that no matter what your gender, ethnicity, religion, skin color, orientation, or social status is, people should love each other and care for one another. Show the world that we can fix what our older generations have left us so our next generation can live without fear of gun violence, racial discrimination, refugee crisis, climate change, and so much more. Let’s make a great impact on the world.”