THE CLASS OF 2018: SANTA FE PREP
Graduating class: 57 Class speaker: Roxy Roffer, who plans to attend the University of Southern California to study screenwriting.
From her speech: “As much as I love a high school movie, Santa Fe Prep could never be boiled down to a formulaic teen flick. Unlike most teen movie characters, we aren’t consumed with who’s gonna be prom king or maintaining our status at the top of the social hierarchy. We aren’t a cliché. After all, this is Santa Fe Prep. And it’s different here. We are talented and motivated to make a difference and that’s a 180 from the typical seniors you see in high school movies. … Yeah, I could come back one day and write a movie about my class’ high school experience, but I think the whole Class of 2018 will agree that we prefer our high school years unscripted.” Valedictorian: Sydney Pope, who plans to attend Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. She hasn’t decided on a major but is considering journalism and neuroscience.
From her speech: “It dawned on many of us that today marks the day when we run out of time. We run out of time to enjoy the company of classmates who we may not have been very close with these past six years, but who we’ve started to get to know better and who have made a significant impression on us in this homestretch. It’s not to say that those people changed necessarily. Rather, many of us just began to appreciate what’s been here all along. … You learn a lot when you run out of time — especially what you might do differently.”
From Head Learner Jim Leonard: “They are loaded with appetites of all kinds: for the stage, track, speech and debate, active discourse in our classrooms, service to the community … the list goes on and on. True to their motto, ‘Bees are dying at an alarming rate: Class of One Eight,’ they are also a cast of characters with colorful personalities and wide-ranging interests.”