2026–27 School Year with a Milestone Moment

The Upper Campus gym was dark, and the screens on either side of the stage played a video in front of a crowd, which began with Emma Neal (Class of 2029) on the cross-country trail writing a note, then folding it into a paper airplane and launching it into the air. The plane flew over campus with views of our newly turfed baseball/softball fields, the new Streck Family field, and the Wood Family track. The plane met up with Luca Renner (Class of 2034), who Emma Neal said, “it’s your time, you gotta go” which set him off running towards the gym, through the doors of the Middle School, and ending with his hands on the gym doors. Then, in real life, a spotlight shown to those same doors. They flew open, and Luca came sprinting in, a paper airplane in hand, a student-operated spotlight chasing him across the gym floor. He ran straight to Head of School Kristy Lundstrom and handed her the plane. She unfolded it, looked up at the crowd, and read the message: “WE DID IT.”

The cheers that followed set the tone for everything that came after.

On August 21, Mount Vernon gathered twice, once for Lower Campus and once for Upper Campus, to open the 2026–27 school year with Convocation, the annual tradition that calls the whole community together to set the purpose and spirit for the year ahead. And this year, that spirit had a name: Creativity.

The Lower Campus Convocation kicked off at 8:50 am after students from PK4 through Grade 5 made the walk across the street to the Upper Campus Gym. Cecelia Rogers (Grade 5) and Ada Rogers (Grade 2) led the community in the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by the Invocation delivered by eighth-grader Liam Ireland. Livi Zelickson, also in Grade 8, then welcomed the younger students with warmth and clarity: “Convocation is not just about starting school; it’s about starting strong, dreaming big, and helping each other along the way.”

Head Prefect Eli Diaz took the stage next, and what he said was anything but ordinary.

The Upper Campus Convocation followed at 10:20 am, with the same electric energy. After Luca’s now-legendary entrance, the same student voices carried the program: Cecelia and Ada Rogers again led the Pledge, Liam Ireland delivered the Invocation, and Livi Zelickson welcomed the crowd.

Then Eli stepped up again and challenged his peers to rethink everything they thought they knew about creativity.

“Creativity is a choice,” he began, before leading the community on a journey that was equal parts art history and personal storytelling. He introduced the infamous artwork Comedian, a banana taped to a wall that sold for over $5 million, and used it to reframe what it means to be truly creative. But the heart of his speech was his own story: a community garden he built at Mount Vernon that was overtaken first by fire ants, then ravaged overnight by rabbits. Rather than walk away, he regrouped, designed a fence, and eventually watched vegetables from that garden make it into the Upper School lunch line.

“I used to think creativity was about being the one to come up with the idea,” Eli told the crowd. “That it was a talent, something that you either have or you don’t. But I don’t think that anymore. Creativity isn’t about the idea. It’s about what happens after the idea.”

Kristy Lundstrom’s address carried that thread forward for every age group. Drawing on the faculty’s summer read, The Creativity Choice by Dr. Zorana Pringle, she brought the science of creativity to life through two unforgettable stories: Dr. James Naismith’s invention of basketball (and the ladder required to retrieve the ball from a solid peach basket) and Greta Thunberg’s 251 consecutive Fridays of showing up alone outside the Swedish Parliament before millions joined her. Student actors Reid, Juliet, Janae, and Oliver brought the Naismith story to life in a live vignette, with Charlotte, CC, Matthew, and Nora embodying the Thunberg story.

“You are already creative,” Kristy told students. “Creativity is not something only a few people have. Creativity is a choice.” She closed with two MV commitments that will anchor the year: Start with Questions and Be brave to try and try again.

Both Convocations closed with a benediction from Stacey Lee and a performance of “Unwritten” by The Stangs, a fitting anthem for a community ready to write the next chapter.

With a completed capital campaign and a theme built for the moment, Mount Vernon is starting the year exactly the way it finishes: by choosing to create something worth showing up for. The idea is just the beginning.

See the full gallery here.