Gratitude and Trust
The Class of 2024 put their faith in their school, and both sides were richly rewarded.
If the Class of 2024 entered Lawrenceville with trepidation, it could be understood. A group of young learners collected from around the world gathered in the fall of 2020 as the entire student body was returning to campus after a pandemic exile, unsure just what to expect. But that year’s youngest class would be undaunted.
“You placed your trust in us and in return blossomed before our eyes. Placing your trust in others is indeed a leap of faith, and it is a gift as well for my faculty, colleagues, and I,” said Head of School Stephen S. Murray H’54 ’55 ’63 ’65 ’16 P’16 ’21. “That leap of faith, that trust you’ve placed in us, has meant the world to us. A recompense has been watching all that you have done in your time here, all that you have accomplished, sometimes in rather public ways with well-deserved praise and honors, and just as often in your quiet, thoughtful efforts to do the right thing – to act with kindness and humility, to follow your hearts and seeing what I see in all of you.”
Murray presented the Edward Sutliff Brainard Prize, given annually by the faculty to the Fifth Form student whom it holds in the highest esteem, to Claire Jiang ’24. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, Murray also presented the Trustees’ Cup, recognizing that student who has most influenced the School for good, to Charles Vachris ’24. He also recognized the members of the class attending service academies in the fall: Jimmy Dean Manley IV ’24 has been appointed to the U.S, Military Academy in West Point, New York; Amelie Deng ’24 and Megan Kumar ’24 both earned ROTC Scholarships; Ace Lumpris ’24 is attending the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School this fall; and Troy Negus ’24 was selected for the West Point Preparatory Scholarship program for the fall of 2025.
In her valedictory address, Emily Pan ’24 ruminated on a motto she had adopted late in her Fifth Form year as a guide to invest herself in the right things.
“When I began to use the phrase, ‘It’s not that serious,’ it wasn’t that I stopped taking everything seriously. I just began to choose what to take seriously and what not to,” Pan explained. “I still put effort into my schoolwork, not because I wanted that grade, but because I felt I owed it to myself to learn and do better. I still showed up for friends and cheered for them; if anything, I cheered louder, because I cared more about supporting them than about being judged by others. I chose what mattered to me.”
See a complete list of Fifth Form prizes and Underform prizes. For more photos from Commencement 2024, visit Lawrenceville’s Flickr page.