Dressed in white, Castilleja School’s Class of 2018 faced their friends and classmates for what was at once a celebration of friendship and a tearful send-off at graduation in Palo Alto on Saturday afternoon.
Keynote speaker Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women, reminded the school’s 55 graduates that while they are now leaving Castilleja, their education will continue through the rest of their lives.
“I am a lifelong learner,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said. “Today you graduate, but you never stop learning.”
Mlambo, who described herself as a “teacher by training,” recalled her own pursuits of learning during her address through a doctoral degree in education she sought while in her 50s. She acknowledged the ageless nature of learning, advising graduates to connect with those at all stages of life.
“You are living with other generations with different experiences,” Mlambo-Ngcuka said. “Respect and embrace those experiences. They are also part of your heritage.”
Head of School Nanci Kauffman echoed this sentiment in her address to the graduates with mention of the viral internet phenomenon, “Yanny” versus “Laurel,” in which the same audio recording sounds to some sounded like “Yanny” and to others like “Laurel.” She invited her audience to consider that, as “Yanny” and “Laurel” coexist, other seemingly irreconcilable viewpoints and experiences do too.
“Consider some of the most critical problems we face today,” Kauffman said. “Often, these challenges can only be addressed when sensible people come together and work to understand their divergent perspectives. … In times of deeply rooted disagreement, those who hear ‘Laurel’ need to recognize and even value the legitimate perspective of those who year ‘Yanny.'”
Kauffman lauded the graduates for their activism during the school year, specifically acknowledging the Castilleja students who joined the nationwide dialogue on gun violence by walking out to advocate for stricter control and regulation of firearms.
“If you continue the great work of bringing together smart, compassionate, thoughtful voices with varying points of view, you will do some of the most important work of our time,” Kauffman said. “You will create the opportunities for civil discourse that, until now, have eluded us.”
The ceremony also included a combined performance by the junior and senior classes of Latham True’s “Our Day with Thee.”
“Going to an all-girls school, there’s an automatic sisterhood,” graduating senior Sydney Loew said. “We’re very open to trying anything without judgment. I just started coding this year.”
Loew is the leader and founder of Castilleja’s entrepreneurship club; co-founder of her own business, a plush toy company called Poketti; as well as an artist with works on display in the school’s Anita Seipp Gallery. In the fall, she will bring all of these skills and more to the University of Southern California’s Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.
“I always wanted to go to Casti,” Loew said. “Now that it’s over… it’s the craziest thing.”
Newly-minted graduate Lindsey Segal spoke of the joy she felt graduating high school that was inevitably tinged with the sadness of leaving behind a special community as she heads to Tulane University this fall.
“I’m pretty excited for college, but obviously I’m sad to be leaving my friends,” Segal said. “It’s nice to know I always have somewhere to come back to.”
Congrats Casti grads.
Excellent Graduation Theme: open-mindedness! Open up for a 2nd campus elsewhere instead of expanding in the busy already neighborhood.
“Castilleja is the only non-sectarian all-girls middle and high school in the San Francisco Bay Area.”
All girls… So much for, “open-mindeness.”
Teaching women to be leaders? How about starting that in the students’ homes? Most of the moms at Casti are stay at home moms. What leadership examples do these girls really have when their own moms do not provide that? Parents, the best thing you can do for your children is not to hover above them and make them your project in success, but to model how to be a productive member of society.
Ironic. Castilleja has set the example of closed-mindedness. Head of School rules with an iron fist and nobody dare cross her.
Seems to me that the elephant in the room is: What happens if Castilleja does decide to move elsewhere? That block of land is prime Palo Alto real estate. It must be worth a LOT of money. With the pressure on the city to build more housing, how many apartments or condos could that land hold? It’s in a great location for walkable living with T&C, Paly, Stanford, and El Camino right there. Maybe the city should work with the school to sell the land and get on with increasing the affordable housing stock in this ridiculously expensive place.
Congratulations and best wishes to these amazing young women! Wishing you all the very best for the futures. We celebrate you!
The elephants in the room: myths propagated by neighbors of Castilleja who complain about traffic (reduced significantly over the last few years), trees (6 trees are being contemplated for removal), and violations (they didn’t know the School was over-enrolled until the Head came forward in 2012 to pay the fine and rectify matters). Doesn’t it make more sense for these neighbors to cash in on their houses (value added by proximity to this 107-year old school) and move to a place with far less traffic, far away from a school, and with plenty of trees?
@Katrina B, NO it doesn’t make sense. What arrogance.