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COMMENCEMENT
The Valedictory Address Noah Tirschwell ’22
Thank you, first and foremost, to our awesome, one-of-a-kind dean, Mrs. Stanek. Thank you to Mr. Wirtz, Mr. King, Mr. Bileca, Ms. Jean, and Mr. Aldrich. Thank you to our incredible teachers, to the administration and staff, to FLIK, to B&G, and to the custodial staff. Thank you to the HPA, the Board of Trustees, and everyone else who made today possible. And perhaps most importantly, thank you to our parents and families. Mom, Dad, Oren, and Talia, thank you for your unwavering support—I would not be here without you. And to the Class of 2022—Congratulations! We made it! We have a lot to celebrate. From ninth grade boatbuilding to Senior Projects and everything else in between, we have had some pretty amazing experiences over the past four years, and we have grown tremendously not only as students, but also as individuals and a broader community. We have also been through a lot, and throughout our time at Hackley, we have faced some pretty extraordinary challenges. So I promise I will come back to the positive, but first, I want to acknowledge everything we have been through these past four years. When we were freshmen, a swastika was found carved into a desk. At the end of our sophomore year, a worldwide pandemic threw us online, and as we Zoomed into school, which was hard enough on its own, we were forced to grapple with the racial prejudice that Black at Hackley revealed. Our junior year, we had to navigate weekly spit testing, mask-wearing, and plastic barriers as we confronted the sexism, homophobia, and sexual assault that Harassment at Hackley brought to light. And then right when it seemed like there was light at the end of
the tunnel, right as our senior year seemed to be on the upswing, we lost a student in our community. Our high school years have not been easy. But that is not to say that the past four years have been dominated by hardship; in fact, I would argue the exact opposite. Time and again, we have found the light in all of this darkness. We have found beauty, joy, and happiness in the most difficult of times. We have laughed together, we have forged meaningful bonds with one another, and we have created memories that will last far beyond our high school years. So let’s return to Black at Hackley, Harassment at Hackley, and the swastika. These episodes were painful and jarring and perhaps even frightening. But as terrible as they were, they created an opportunity for progress. They led to important discussions around bigotry and assault at our school. It is clear that we are not where we need to be, but these moments provided us with a first step towards healing. When the pandemic struck, we likewise found a silver lining. We were able to see our teachers as
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