Thirty-six seniors graced the upper school quad one last time on Friday, May 30th to celebrate Commencement, the 48th class to graduate from Santa Fe Prep in the school’s 51 years of operation. They are the newest of Prep’s 1700+ alumni. 

Under partly cloudy skies and with hundreds of friends, family, and faculty in attendance, the Class of 2014 was celebrated for its wit, leadership of the school in this 50th anniversary year, and tremendous accomplishments.

Class Speaker Aaron Stevens, always an original voice among his peers, noted, "Don’t forget where you’ve come from, what you’ve done, and your individual success and failures at Prep. What you’ve picked up here is a solid foundation for life beyond home and high school, so don’t be afraid to build on it." Actor Miguel Sandoval ’69 encouraged the seniors to "Err in the direction of kindness." And Valedictorian Ian McClaugherty reflected, "Each member of our class finds happiness in different ways, but as long as we do what makes us happy, we will all be successful."

Click for a link to the Congratulations, Class of 2014 two-page ad in Pasatiempo.

We send a monumental thank you to each and every parent at Prep, all of whom are automatically members of the Parents’ Association. Throughout the year you volunteered for events, donated to our auction, helped with our community service programs, gave advice, gathered the community and helped raise $70,000 for our school. Your time and donations have an immeasurable impact on the success of the education we provide. This year, at the last Parents’ Association meeting of the year, you voted to have the funds you raised used in the following ways:

•    $40,000 to Tuition Assistance
•    $10,000 to Breakthrough Santa Fe
•    $10,000 to Professional Development
•    $10,000 to Performing Arts

Leading the success of the PA this year were President Margaret Hennessey (who also led the Parent Education and Faculty Appreciation Committees), Vice President Julie Murray (who was a co-chair with Elizabeth Bradley for Founders’ Day), Secretary Laurie Knight, and Treasurer Candace Raboff—thank you all for your phenomenal commitment.

We would also like to thank Christine Lehman for her fantastic work as Gala Chair, Krista Tyra for creating an unforgettable Prom 2014 and chairing the Upper School Student Activities, and Jill Gerber for leading another hit in Rummage Sales. 

Finally we thank our Grade Level Reps for uniting our community,
grade by grade: 

7th Grade:    Kelly Stranahan, Katherine Suri, Chriss O’ Neill
8th Grade:     Fay Kirby, Michelle Barliant
9th Grade:     Mitch Koolpe, Kristi Carlson-Mazur
10th Grade:   Andrea Broyles, Nicole Whitten
11th Grade:   Michelle Barliant, Rebecca Allahyari
12th Grade:   Kelsey Daly Brown, Valerie Levine, Krista Tyra

And thank you to our Committee Chairs for finessing flawless celebrations:

Parent Open House:  Karen Hodges, Carol Laposata
Admissions Open House:  Gracie Schild
12th Grade Graduation:   Kelsey Daly Brown, Valerie Levine, Krista Tyra

The family of trustee and former Prep parent Andrew Davis is making a generous gift to the school of $500,000 to create an endowed chair in honor of Andrew’s grandmother, who passed away a year ago at the age of a hundred and six. The Kathryn Wasserman Davis Chair in 20th Century American History, funded by the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund, will underscore in perpetuity the importance of understanding the intricacies of American policy and engagements in the 20th century, and the implications for our future. History and foreign policy were longstanding passions of Kathryn Wasserman Davis.

This endowed chair is the third to be established at Santa Fe Prep, following the M.A. Healy Chair for Teaching Excellence, established in 2001, and the Griffin Chair for Inspirational Teaching, established in 2002. Endowed chairs honor the teachers who hold them, as well as the donor who creates them; a portion of that teacher's salary is funded through the endowment, rather than the operating budget.

At Commencement on May 30th, Jim Leonard named History Department Chair and Senior U.S. History Teacher Nick Wirth to the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Chair. Now in his 13th year at Prep, Nick is well-suited to guiding students in this field of inquiry. He will hold the Davis Chair through his tenure at Santa Fe Prep.

BREAKTHROUGH VISITOR'S DAY

Breakthrough Santa Fe is thrilled to start its summer session on June 23rd this year, with over 150 students in grades 7-12. We would love to host you for this year's Visitor's Day! Come see the magic of older students, including Molly Montgomery '15 and Prep alums Hillary Hale '10 and Molly Quay-de la Vallee '11, helping younger students reach their dreams of college. The details...

What: Visitor's Day at Breakthrough Santa Fe
When: Wednesday, July 2nd, 9 am
Where: Founders' Room at Prep
Why: See how Prep is positively impacting the larger Santa Fe community!

By December 31st, 2013, 99% of our faculty and staff had already supported this year's annual fund. Each day, teachers experience the power of the annual fund first-hand at Prep and see the difference it makes daily to our kids.

The annual fund helps pay for professional development to keep instruction innovative, engaging, and relevant. It brings in a profusion of voices to class discussions through tuition assistance, making what happens in the classroom challenging and dynamic, opening a window into the world beyond Santa Fe.  Faculty and staff know that the annual fund allows them to say "yes" to our students’ good ideas rather than "You can't...we can't."  

Our annual fund also closes the gap of more than $3,000 per student between what it costs to run the school at the high level we do and our revenues from tuition. Please help bridge that gap by joining the faculty, staff, and hundreds of others in our support of the annual fund so that we can all sustain that resounding chorus of "Yes!"    

We’ve got $86,000 more to raise by June 30th to reach the $550,000 we need for our school.  Please click here to help us meet our goal before the school year ends—we are a non-profit and every dollar goes directly to our faculty, our programs, and our students. Thank you!