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Commencement 2015
St. Luke’s 86th Commencement Exercises took place on June 5, 2015. As Head of School Mark Davis said to families that day: “Today, we feel this room and our hearts overflowing with powerful emotions. We feel great joy in your accomplishments, and in the new journeys that await you. At the same time, we’re sad that our time together has come to an end. We feel sorrow - a beautiful sorrow that stems from the love and relationships that have grown during your time on the Hilltop.” See more of Mark’s Commencement remarks.
Salutatorian Monika Gabriele told her classmates: My parting advice for you next year is to never let that flame dwindle. Let it burn with the intensity of a thousand suns, and never be afraid to show others the fire that you have inside. Do what you were made to do, and do with amazing beauty and pure joy. And then, and only then, you will find true peace.”
Monika’s mother, and St. Luke’s Assistant Head of School for Finance and Operations, Julia Gabriele, was the student-chosen parent speaker. She had many in tears with her wish for the graduates: “I wish you St. Luke’s...I wish you best friends like the ones you’ve had here. People that lift you up and bring out your best. People that you can entrust with your hopes and dreams as well as your secrets. I wish you friends who will gladly down pints of Ben & Jerry’s helping you through a heart wrenching break up and those who will stay up into the wee hours of the night, sharing belly-aching laughs—making moments you hope will never end.”
Valedictorian Khush Dhaliwal left everyone with a message all the more powerful because of its beautiful simplicity: “Someone once told me that it is better to be great than to be good. I disagree. While I don’t know if there is inherent goodness in being great, I do believe that there is greatness in being good. There is greatness in kindness and in integrity. There is greatness in working hard. There is greatness in smiling brightly after you took a hard test. There is greatness in laughing the loudest when you had only four hours of sleep last night. There is greatness in staying after class when everyone has left to push in all the chairs and pick up scrap paper from the floor. There is greatness in loving your family, your friends, and sometimes even strangers. There is greatness in empathy.”
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 40 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Leading with Humanity curriculum builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
