Dear Upper School Families,
This week, our community gathered for Honors Convocation, a celebration of academic, artistic, and athletic excellence and student achievement. As I listened to the student homages and watched students cross the stage, I found myself thinking about the habits and mindsets underneath those accomplishments.
Curiosity.
Engagement.
Responsibility.
Courage.
Connection.
Ambition.
The students we celebrated this week arrived at this moment because of intention. They learned how to wrestle with difficult ideas, communicate clearly, collaborate with others, take intellectual risks, and stay engaged through challenge and uncertainty.
That is the kind of excellence Wellington has worked to cultivate over the years.
At some point this year, your child faced a moment of challenge. That challenge may have been an assignment, a test, the social history project, the anticipation of a WISE trip, writing a college essay, overcoming stage fright, or fighting for their team when they were behind. Their growth came in how they responded to that moment.
This is the real story of Wellington.
Growth is rarely perfect. Adolescence certainly is not. What matters is that students stay engaged in the process of becoming more thoughtful, more capable, more confident, and more connected to the world around them.
I am deeply grateful for Wellington teachers. I have watched them stay after long days to support struggling students, redesign lessons to spark deeper engagement, celebrate student successes with genuine joy, and continue believing in young people during difficult moments. They create classrooms filled with rigor, humanity, curiosity, laughter, and connection. This community is stronger because of them.
I am equally grateful to our families for the trust, partnership, and care you have extended to the school and to one another over the years. Raising adolescents asks all of us to balance challenge with patience, support with accountability, and guidance with trust.
As my time at Wellington comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the kind of community this has been.
A place where students can be ambitious and joyful.
Intellectually serious and deeply human.
Competitive and collaborative.
Curious enough to keep asking questions and courageous enough to grow.
Long after grades are forgotten and awards are packed away, what remains is who our students learn to be:
people who think deeply,
care genuinely,
lead courageously,
and stay connected to one another.
That is the lasting work of a school community.
Thank you for allowing me to be part of it.
Go Jags.
Rishi
Rishi Raghunathan
Head of Upper School
Important Dates
05/21/26: Last day for 11th grade students
05/22/26: Last day for 9th and 10th grade students
05/23/26-06/03/26: WISE Ecuador
05/25/26: School Closed: Memorial Day
05/26/26-06/06/26: WISE Norway
05/29/26-06/08/26: WISE Poland
05/27/26: Senior Celebration, 6:00
05/28/26: Commencement Practice, 12:00 p.m.
05/29/26: Commencement, 10:00 a.m.