Congratulations to The Class of 2014

Intermittent downpours may have impacted the logistics of Friday’s graduation at Rivers, but the 90 seniors in the Class of 2014 found plenty to celebrate.

Family and friends crowded the tent on the Quad as retiring Head of School Tom Olverson opened the ceremony and introduced President of the Board of Trustees Clint Harris. Harris in turn thanked Olverson for his outstanding leadership of Rivers for the past 17 years. He went on to remind graduates to nurture the relationships they made at Rivers, that those relationships will be valuable personally, socially, and professionally in the years to come.

Faculty speaker Julian Willard, chair of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department, spoke to the graduates about the paradox of education, that “on the one hand education is discovering something, revealing what’s there independently of you. But on the other hand education seems to be about creation, as you make your own sense of the data in a way that means something to you. If you create something, it wasn’t there independently of your creative effort, and if you discover what’s independently there, you can’t have created it – you get the paradox.”

Willard went on to remind students that “real creation is a product of the heart as much as of the head…without an environment that is nurturing, caring, energetic, and warm, the productive tension between creation and discovery falls apart.”

He concluded, “Here’s my last suggestion about the discovery/creation paradox: what if our values themselves, the engines that drive our lives from the moment we open our eyes to the moment we turn out the light, are marvelous works of our own art, the most rich, powerful and complex creations of all? Wouldn’t that be something? We create, by loving, inspired, profoundly human collaboration, our own realities… So I don’t just want to say to you, ‘go discover the world.’ I also want to say, speaking quite literally, go create it.”

Nate Johnson ’14, chosen by his classmates as the student speaker, also spoke about the power of collaboration.

“As much as I think we have all benefitted from learning how to solve differential equations, how to conjugate verbs in foreign languages, and how to write persuasive essays,” commented Johnson, “the humanistic training that Rivers has given us will be our most valuable asset going forward in life. The world needs people who can communicate with others. Solving problems, specifically the ones that the world will be facing when our generation is running the world, will require collaboration. One brilliant mind won’t be enough to solve global warming, world hunger, or an energy crisis.

“So as each of us walks across the podium today, perhaps mourning the loss of our dominance on campus, I think it is important for us to remember to work with others,” Johnson concluded. “We’ve all been blessed to have learned how to collaborate. Whatever the disciplines we study, the careers we pursue in life, or the problems we try to solve we will be able to use this skill… Today as we shed our shark fins and walk across the stage, away from familiarity and towards a wide open ocean filled with new people and endless possibilities, remember the importance of collaboration that we have learned at Rivers.”

After the individual presentation of the diplomas was completed, the graduates filed out through lines of applauding faculty and family members for a brief and soggy cap toss at the flagpole. Guests and graduates then retreated quickly into the campus center for a festive reception.

Congratulations to the Class of 2014 and best wishes for a bright future beyond Rivers.