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Welcome Back, May Day!

Last year saw the return of the May Day Arts Festival. On May 10, 2022 in the Garden, Lower and Middle School students sang and danced in the spring sunshine as delighted parents and faculty looked on. After a two-year hiatus, students once again twirled around the Maypole in a tightly choreographed piece created by Nathalie Pridgen ’22, presented impressive dance routines (including freestyle breakdancing!), and belted out favorite songs. The celebration was peppered with moving tributes to departing faculty and staff members, and culminated in a confetti explosion.

A Return to Form: Celebrating the Class of 2022

A Return to Form: Celebrating the Class of 2022

At the end of a school year that felt like it was edging back to normalcy, faculty, staff, and families gathered together on a balmy June evening in the Packer Garden to celebrate the Class of 2022.

Last year’s ceremony marked the triumphant return to the pre-pandemic Graduation format, with students together onstage and groupings of family members looking on from the audience.

Speakers highlighted the Class of 2022’s remarkable empathy and kindness toward one another, as well as their resilience and steadfast commitment to social justice and activism. The commencement program also included a Living Land Acknowledgement, presented by four members of the senior class, to recognize and respect Indigenous peoples as traditional stewards of the land upon which Packer was built.

Several members of the Class of 2022 offered exquisite musical performances: John Boch played the piano as Sarah Thau sang “In My Life” by the Beatles; Jake Schlein, Alexander Economakis, Hannah Youngwood, Dana Hillebrecht, Frankie Komar, Lucy Anderson, Lily Orlando, Sadie Sadler, Sarah Thau, Gigi Bylinsky, Olivia Rosas, Monty Gunnell, Sofia Leaf, Olivia Bobadilla, and Callie Worth belted out “The Circle Game” by Joni Mitchell with Hannah Youngwood on guitar.

In another return to tradition, the Class of 2022 was able to invite an outside speaker. Schuyler Bailar, a diversity and inclusion educator, activist, life coach, speaker and the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division 1 men’s team, sparked humor and joy with his moving tale of self-discovery and hard-learned wisdom.

To ensure that other family members and loved ones across the world could “attend” the event, the ceremony was also livestreamed. Nearly 500 people tuned in. Find