Find Your Purpose, Chase Your Potential: Head of School Eliza McLaren’s Remarks to the Class of 2025

Find Your Purpose, Chase Your Potential: Head of School Eliza McLaren’s Remarks to the Class of 2025

 

Editor’s note: What follows is the full transcript of Head of School Eliza McLaren’s remarks delivered during the 2025 graduation ceremony. It includes all opening instructions and transitions to preserve the original context and spirit of the event. 

 

Good morning, honored guests, members of the Wellington faculty, staff, Board of Trustees, families, students, alumni, and friends – and welcome to the graduation ceremony for The Wellington School CLASS OF 2025! 
 
We gather today in a moment of joyous celebration of the many accomplishments already achieved by this remarkable group of students and the many still to come as they embark on bright futures. Let us begin by welcoming the a cappella group for the singing of our national anthem. 

 

Class of 2025 – please stay standing – the rest of you may be seated.  
 
Seniors, I’m going to ask that you turn around and face those gathered here today. I want you to look at your families, your parents, your grandparents, your siblings, your mentors, and all of the people who are here today for one reason: you. These are the people who invest in you, who support you, who want you to succeed, and who believe in you with their whole hearts. 

 

Class of 2025, can you please give your loved ones a round of applause to recognize them for being here and for all they have done for you? 

 

Seniors, you may be seated. 

 

On behalf of all of us at Wellington, it is my distinct honor to offer CONGRATULATIONS on the successful completion of your high school years. As individuals and as a collective group, you are truly outstanding, and you have a special place in my heart, being the first senior class I get to see graduate.  

 

I am so grateful for the time we have spent together this year. Your insights about the school, your passion for your education, and your genuine desire to lead us in evolving responsibly have been exemplary. You have shown us what it means to lead with spirit, intelligence, creativity, and kindness. Thank you for your wisdom and your heart. 
 
So, here we are. Commencement. When something commences, it begins…so, this moment is not an ending, rather, it is an exhilarating beginning. This moment – your commencement – is your invitation to lean into every future task and experience with the same dauntless abandon you have brought to your education here at Wellington. 
 

When starting anything, setting intentions is critical. So, in this moment, I ask you to consider: what are your intentions for this new beginning, for this commencement? This is, of course, a HUGE question, and we won’t get to the bottom of it today. But I want to share with you that I believe the pathway to the answer is etched in Wellington’s mission and values: aspire to find your purpose and always work towards your potential. Be curious, be yourself, be ambitious, be empathetic, and be responsible. 
  
Be good and be generous with that goodness.  
 
At your senior dinner on Wednesday, your chosen faculty speaker, Mrs. Cornett, shared words from her favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt. She and I did not coordinate this, but I already had intended to share words with you today from one of my favorite American first ladies…Eleanor Roosevelt. Now, you historians out there know that Eleanor Roosevelt was not Teddy Roosevelt’s wife but rather his niece. This made it somewhat unusual when she went on to marry someone else with her same last name - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - but don’t worry, connecting them on a family tree requires going back to the 1400s, so it’s safe to say that was not the source of great controversy. Anyhow, Eleanor Roosevelt was, of course, the longest-serving first lady in our country’s history and greatly influenced the scope of the role as a public servant. 
 

Eleanor Roosevelt was a fierce advocate for education and school improvement. She believed the primary goal of education was more than the simple acquisition of knowledge and facts – she said the goal of schools should be to "give children a desire to learn and to teach them how to use their minds and where to go to acquire facts when their curiosity is aroused.” Sound familiar? That is, of course, precisely what we aspire to do here at Wellington. 
 

Seniors, Wellington has taught you how to learn. We have done our best to show you how to think, not what to think. We have equipped you with the habits of mind—critical inquiry, open-mindedness, intellectual discipline—that will serve you wherever you go next. We have taught you how to pursue curiosity, how to ask thoughtful questions, how to express yourself clearly, how to empathize and take the perspective of others, and how to engage with one another in ways that seek to arrive at conclusions rather than starting from them. We believe in small classes and big ideas; and we believe it is essential that each of you has grown within a community in which you were seen, known, and celebrated.  
 
Back to Eleanor Roosevelt, in one of her later reflections on a life well lived, she wrote the following: “For our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others.”  
 
This, too, is the Wellington Way. You seniors understand that leading means uplifting others whenever and wherever you can. 
 

Many of the quotations your class selected for your yearbook pages emphasized precisely this point – one of you shared an inspiring line from a great heart and mind right here at Wellington, Coach Artie Taylor, who says: “You gotta share the love.” At Wellington, “we fight” to share the love. We fight to contribute to the success of others. We fight to find our purpose, to chase ever towards our potential, and to lead lives of significance.  

 

Our graduation speaker today, Ken Ackerman, is an embodiment of this. He was one of Wellington’s founders—and he never stopped engaging with the school, seeing it through chapters in which its success was far from certain. Mr. Ackerman has stayed connected and curious–and deeply committed to making sure generations of dedicated students can soar at this school. I know that seeing all of you today and hearing about all you have achieved and learned in this community - must be tremendously gratifying for him. Mr. Ackerman found part of his life’s purpose in this school, and he has helped us in reaching our potential. That is a life of significance.  
 
So, Class of 2025, the world does not need you to be perfect. It needs you to be principled and poised and to find your purpose as you contribute to the success and well-being of others. In the coming years, I hope you: 

 

  1. Look for what lights you up, for what gives you purpose. Many of you have found that already, and it is okay if you haven’t yet. When you do find it, chase it, build on it, challenge it, deepen it, define it, and then redefine it, and enjoy it. What will separate you from others is your tenacity of purpose and your willingness to engage with every opportunity to learn that comes your way.  

  2. In the coming years, I hope you are reasoned in your regard for grades. Do well in college, yes—but know that success is more than GPA. College is your opportunity to lean further into how to think, how to connect, and how to contribute. Treasure the relationships you build and set intentions around the skills you wish to develop, but don’t reduce these grand pursuits to chasing after numbers on a transcript.  

  3. In the coming years, I hope you embrace the twists and turns and understand that the path toward success is not linear. Make the best decisions you can with the information you have. If the road curves, forgive yourself and others and keep going. Growth rarely follows a straight line, but do your best to avoid steps backward – make healthy choices for your body and mind, safeguard your attention, and ask for help whenever you need it. We are always here for you if you need it. And I am sure we will have many generative conversations about the twists and turns in your path at your 10-, 15-, and 20-year reunions – such detours make for great stories. 

  4. In the coming years, I hope you will be marigolds. Surround yourself with people who help you grow and who make you feel more like yourself—not less. And be that person for others, too. For our own success to be real, it must contribute to the success of others. You gotta share the love. 

  5. In the coming years, I hope you remember where you came from. Carry Wellington with you- this school, our shared values, and the network you built here are part of your story now. Don’t leave them behind. They have the power to nourish you for years to come. 

  6. And finally – in the coming years, I hope you continue to keep your word: Your word is one of the most sacred things you have. Treasure and preserve it. If you have to break your word, do it with care, thought, and humility. 

     

Speaking of keeping our word…it is my turn...I must keep my word to a group of students with whom I made a friendly wager that included a commitment to mentioning them in my remarks today…So, to my Wednesday dress-up crew, my Leap Day sartorial geniuses, can you please wave so everyone knows who you are? You made Wednesdays feel like the Met Gala. And here you are, being mentioned in my remarks, as we agreed.  

 

So, Class of 2025…We are SO going to miss you, and we cherish the time we have shared. We are ALWAYS going to be your home, your Wellington, here for you with open arms when you return. 

 

Now, it is your responsibility to bring your Wellington education to the world with you. Your teachers and I – your entire Wellington community - will be cheering you on with our deepest admiration, our enduring support, and our complete confidence in your ability to live lives of great and real success in the Wellington Way.  
 

Congratulations, Class of 2025. Go, Jags!