This is Your Story

Aug 31, 2022 | All School, Blog, Lower and Middle School, Lower School News, Middle School News, News, PBL/IBL, Preschool, Preschool News, Upper School News

Convocation is one of the most anticipated events of the school year. This August, our Mount Vernon community came together to receive the charge for the year from our CEO, Head of School, and Head Prefect. This year, the School’s battle cry is “Let’s Do This” whereby students are challenged to:

Create their Story
Design their Story
Explore their Story
Grow their Story
Foster their Story
Multiply their Story

CEO Dr. Brett Jacobsen shared his perspective on storytelling, “Stories have beginnings and endings. Every school year has this natural start, the first day of school, and this natural punctuation mark called graduation that reflects the end of the journey. Endings give way to beginnings just as much as beginnings give way to endings.”

Ada and Ava testing the safety of a slightly damp climbing structure

Head Prefect Lyndsey Franklin addressed her peers in the Class of 2023 and the rest of the community, “When challenges are brought to us, the decisions we make define our character. I want to challenge you all to be intentional about your own story. With so many new faces around campus, it’s more important now than ever. Even though our own individual stories may seem small, when connected to our community they mean so much more than us. They mean that we leave an impact, a legacy for other’s behind us to get inspiration from and to learn from.”

As our new Head of School, Kristy Lundstrom emphasized, “Let’s Do This means Let US ALL do this TOGETHER. Each of you has it in you to design and create your own story through the small gestures of kindness and connection, inquiry and innovation, curiosity and courage. Let us commit to doing the hard things together- working through conflict, overcoming challenges and leaning in to get important, impactful work done.”

Students collaborating on their sketches of a playground structure

F Scott Fitgerald once wrote “It is never too late or too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start over again.” It is never too late to start a new story. Good friends, family, and other support groups are there to help every step of the way.

Stacey Lee, Chief of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Action closed the ceremony with an inclusive benediction:
“May love connect us.
May joy ignite us.
May peace comfort us.
May patience direct us.
May kindness and goodness show through us.
May faithfulness convict us.
May gentleness guide us.
May self-control seal our commitment to design a better world through grace for ourselves and grace for others.”

Students were invited to join in by repeating the most important words – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. All left Convocation feeling inspired to grow, design, multiply, foster, and explore our individual stories as we create a collective Mount Vernon story together for the year ahead.