KIT OPENING REMARKS

Good afternoon, and welcome, everyone, to the 2023 Commencement Exercises of the Roeper City and Country School My name is Christopher Federico, my pronouns are he/him, and I am honoured and privileged to be Roeper’s Head of School

Honoured, privileged, and a little apprehensive, for while this is the 55th such ceremony for The Roeper School, it is obviously the first one for me as its Head That is daunting in itself, but to add to that, in typical Roeper fashion, I have been given a great deal of autonomy, and rather little guidance, in composing my remarks for today

This is, rightly, an incredibly important day for everyone here; it’s a one-shot deal, and you are all wondering whether the new guy is going to get it right while I am wondering if I am going to use some arcane Canadian expression that none of you will understand And then there’s the fact that more than one member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees is here today to see their own children graduate, as is my own indispensable assistant who has on more than one occasion admonished me that, “I’d better not to blow it,” and you see why I might be feeling just a little pressure

Two things, however, have helped relieve that pressure First is that, again this being Roeper, I knew that if push came to shove, I could always just cancel the whole thing and take everyone out for ice cream The second is that in my researches, I came across the speech George gave at that firstever 12th Grade graduation 54 years ago and was reassured — as will you be — that his speech ran only slightly over two double-spaced typewritten pages So now I had some direction: keep it short and avoid talking about Toonies, Tim Horton’s, or toques, and you’ll be fine

If obscure Canadian references are off limits, however, a little Latin never is

So, a true (if nerdy) fact gleaned from my own many years of independent school Latin that the word student isn’t really connected to schooling, but is actually the present participle of the verb studeo, studére, studui, studitum, meaning “to be eager,” which seems like the right descriptor for this group For although I have not been in a position to see all the things that these students have done on over their many collective years at

Roeper — in fact I have only really had the opportunity to get to know them over the past 10 months — I have been in this business long enough to know that they didn’t get to where they are now and do all the things about which we are about to hear without being eager to do lot of work, seek out a wide and varied array of experiences, take risks, and build friendships and connections, and that their parents, family, friends, and teachers were eager to support them in doing it

To graduate, on the other hand, means to take a step, to proceed upwards or forwards, away from something and towards something else Although a graduation is a time to celebrate, it is also a moment of unease, as, in taking that step, we leave behind us what is familiar to advance into the unknown It is an occasion for us both to reflect on an investment of time and to contemplate its future returns

And we indeed have a group in front of us who have been, and I have no doubt will continue to be, eager to take steps From those first tentative, wobbly literal steps that carried some of them through the doors of the Domes or the Hill House, to the steps they have taken to advance their own knowledge by navigating a course through the unique educational experience that is Roeper, and from the steps they have taken to re-build community and spirit to the steps they are about to take into college and that part of the world that lies beyond the Roeper campus

Graduates, in looking back on your time at Roeper and in contemplating your next steps, I offer you the same thought that George did to that first Roeper graduating class Although it is more than 50 years old, it is no less apropos today:

You may be immensely successful. You may have failed. Regardless, you will have an outlook towards life that is open-minded, progressive, more understanding and accepting of differences among human beings. You will be intolerant of ruthless, inhuman cruelty, and I hope intolerant of violence of any kind. You will feel passionate about justice and rights of the individual and fight injustices, racism, and narrow-minded bigotry.

Roeper families, I thank you for trusting us with your children Roeper graduates of the Class of

2023, I congratulate you; I thank you for enriching the ever-evolving community that is Roeper; and I wish you every success in your endeavours to come

Just keep your sticks on the ice F