Williams School Seniors Told They Are Ready For Influence, Responsibility

As Mark Fader calculated it, the 53 seniors graduating from Williams School on Wednesday had 24 siblings in the audience—and many of those graduating were the last in their families to do so.

Fader, head of school at the Williams School, said the students have managed to distinguish themselves from those who came before them in a number of ways. They established a spring tradition of dodgeball, held the first coffeehouse fundraiser to make a donation to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Fund, and the establishment of a school award for social justice.

Andrew Watson, the class speaker, said the students should work to preserve their high school friendships and remember their time at the Williams School. However, he said they should also take time to enjoy the present as well.

“It’s your moment, but it’s fleeting,” he said. “So pause, even if it’s just for a second, and ponder what you’re going through.”

Watson suggested that the class experience at the school had been “a little sheltered,” and that the Class of 2013 will face a new environment when they go on to college. He said the graduates should use the skills they had developed at the Williams School to apply to their new situation, but not rely on it for a lifeline.

“Life can, and will, suck sometimes,” said Watson. “It gets really rough, with college and plans and whatnot not going as planned. But that’s what makes it exhilarating.”

The class chose John Knudsen, a member of the history department who has been teaching at the school for 25 years, as their commencement speaker. Knudsen, whose youngest daughter was part of the Class of 2013, thanked the class and said the highest honor a teacher can receive is recognition by students.

“I am diminished to virtually nothing without you. After all, you define me,” he said. “You give meaning to my life.”

Knudsen spoke of an incident during World War II in which a German fighter plane, after seeing the dead and wounded aboard a stricken American bomber, escorted the plane to safety rather than shoot it down. He said he considered the incident a reminder of why he teaches, in an effort to guide students to self-discovery and prepare them to be responsible citizens.

“One day, you are likely to be in a position of power, a position that will force you to make a decision that will impact the lives of other people,” he said. “What will you do?”

Fader said he recently looked through the selections for Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. He said he thought the students at the Williams School shared most of the core values of the people chosen by the magazine.

“I can’t help but think each year that our students have the power to influence the world with what they’ve learned at Williams,” he said.

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