OPENING REMARKS

KIT OPENING REMARKS

Close your eyes Picture the Community Center building filled with rows and rows of family members, friends, and faculty The spotlights point to the stage where next to the podium is a photo of George and Annemarie Roeper, and surrounding the stage below are dozens of Mariann Hoag’s favorite geranium plants with red flowers beginning to blossom

The band has gathered, and Eric Ambrose is readying them to play Pomp and Circumstance Seated to the side of the band are an excited group of faculty members each with a speech specifically constructed to tell your story and honor your legacy

I stand, signal Eric, and the band begins to play; the audience rises, and one by one, you begin the processional Your cap with its tassel hanging to the right bounces as you make you way to the stage; your family is looking on with both joyful tears and broad smiles Camera clicks fill the air as one by one you make your way into the room When you reach the stage, you take your seat in the order of your Roeper tenure Seated to the front are the Roeper lifers, those of you who have been here since you were three years old back in Stage I Now that you are seated, I step to the podium, and we begin our program

My dear Class of 2020, this video ceremony is not the culminating ending that any of us would have written for this ultimate moment in your high school life It is not the celebration we intended, nor is it the one you so richly deserve

This recorded ceremony will long be remembered as a moment when we stepped away from the stress and anxiety that we have been experiencing during our battle with the coronavirus and came together as one community An essential and historical marker to honor you, to celebrate your legacy, and to acknowledge that while we are holding this unusual commencement program, there still remains a feeling that the day is incomplete Technology helps to give us a common platform, but it is not the same as being together It’s not the same as sharing laughter, the warmth of a hug, or the joyful crying that comes from remembering a child’s journey through their years of school I have thought a lot about you these past few months and how this day would feel I’ve thought about George Roeper who left his Ph D incomplete as war approached, and his freedom was at risk I remembered Annemarie Roeper who received a phone call from George to quickly come home from her studies in Vienna with Anna Freud as fears of the approaching Holocaust became more threatening

World events today are reshaping lives, refocusing priorities, and you now find yourself in a shifting tide The fall is filled with great uncertainty, and you will be called upon to make many choices as you prepare for this unknown future

You have spent your days at Roeper immersed in a humanistic community; you have developed certain habits of the heart that ground you and provide you with a moral compass Words like community, compassion, and service are not empty terms, but rather life lessons you have experienced as you’ve worked with younger children, peers, and outside of the walls of our buildings

I have often thought that my generation was fortunate to have inherited the Roeper philosophy We did not have to suffer the experiences of the World War or a genocide to learn the importance of justice rather than power or the essential value of equal human rights for all

Today, however, I believe that we are being called upon to reaffirm these philosophical tenets, and that you as the newest members of the Roeper alumni will be called upon to provide leadership and guidance to a world in desperate need of healing You have spent your days at Roeper immersed in a humanistic community; you have developed certain habits of the heart that ground you and provide you with a moral compass

Within each of you is not merely a light that feels diminished by a missed ceremony, but rather a fire that burns with intensity to bring compassion, hope and change to this world

I believe that the antidote to the fear and tribalism that is growing pervasively around us is hope, and that you are that hope Class of 2020, you are a group made up of scientists, writers, mathematicians, historians, artists, athletes, and gifted problem solvers You are deeply caring, highly complex, and profoundly curious Within each of you is not merely a light that feels diminished by a missed ceremony, but rather a fire that burns with intensity to bring compassion, hope and change to this world I am so proud of all that you have accomplished, and so excited to see all that you will do You are amazing individuals and an inspiring group of leaders

Now is the time for your moral engagement; now is the time to reaffirm the teachings of the Roeper philosophy and bring its core values of responsibility, compassion, and hope to a world in desperate need of healing

Now is your time! F