Convocation 2023 Remarks

The following remarks were shared by Head of School Kathleen Devaney with the community on September 6, 2023 during the opening of school Convocation Ceremony. Board Chair James L. Alexandre ’75 and Trustee Chair of the Head of Search Committee Michael W. Harris ’84 P’22 were present for the ceremony to officially present Ms. Devaney as the School’s 12^th Head of School and presented

Welcome to Hill and the 2023-2024 school year!

I met some of you last winter and spring, more of you in the past few days and I will work hard to get to know all of you as the year unfolds. There has been much for all of us to do, new people to meet, old friends to connect with, rooms to set up.  And, if you are a football player—you preseason warriors, you may feel as though you’ve lived a lifetime since you arrived on campus three weeks ago back on August 19! But whether this is day two for you on Hill’s campus or the beginning of your fourth year, we have all been busy with the work of connection.

A piece of news caught my attention this summer. This past May, the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, declared loneliness and isolation an epidemic in the United States. While the deleterious effects of disconnectedness is certainly not new to us, the idea that it can impact our physical health as well as our mental health might be. Dr. Murthy writes of these profound health consequences, equating the effects of loneliness, which were painfully exacerbated during COVID, to smoking 15 cigarettes per day in terms of how it changes life expectancy. But, most importantly, Dr. Murthy also writes of a remedy, of the “medicine” as he puts it “hiding in plain sight: social connection.” As it turns out, we are good for one another.

Before I started work in July, Hill asked me to come to campus to meet alums over reunion weekend. Returning students, you had just left campus, but your experiences echoed in the voices of these alums, young and old, gathered in the The Class of 1971 Garden. I had the chance to address them, and I offered this thought on boarding schools. IRL—In Real Life—a reference to our existence outside of social media.  A stand in for living, for shared experiences, for living in person, together. Boarding schools are the OG IRL. For you cringing, no worries, I’ll stop using generation Y speak.  In our lives here at Hill, in the dining hall, at seated meals, in chapel, in the mojo, dojo, casa dorm room, if you will, on the field and the stage, in the common room and in the classroom, we are living, learning, connecting and growing in community with one another. Now, more than ever, we see the value of boarding school in providing a level of shared experience and familiarity not experienced in almost any other part of life.

Now, I am not a Luddite, which as Dr. Miller can explain, is a reference to a group of activists in 19th century England who sabotaged industrial equipment because they feared automation was destroying society. We understand that social media, email, our instant communication...all of these tools have an essential place in our modern life, they help maintain connections with people far from us, and are ingrained in the workings of our school. I mean, WAVE, right?

But, connections require attention. One of the reasons why we prohibit cell phones and ear buds while moving on campus is that those devices preclude the opportunity to make that effort, as the devices create a bubble that communicates self-sufficiency, even if we’re not. Stowing the phone and putting away the ear buds are intentional acts of opening ourselves up to the people in front of us. 

Real connection happens in person. It happens in a shared struggle over the illusive translation of the Odyssey in Mr. Turner’s class. In unraveling the complicated concepts of honors calculus in Mr. Higginbotham’s math class, and in completing the demanding athletic preseason fitness challenge for Ms. Gomez. Real connections happen while triumphing as a team against Souderton High in water polo, and in nailing a choreographed dance number for the Back to Broadway! production last Saturday night.

And part of the beauty of boarding school is having the opportunity to meet people with different perspectives, people who will enliven a conversation by bringing their own viewpoints to bear. Often, as we get to know each other, our energy is focused on finding similarities…what we like in common. And once we feel comfortable in our relationships, it can be easier to begin exploring the differences in opinions, the points where we disagree or see through different lenses. This year, part of our community-wide diversity initiatives will be Revisiting Courageous Conversations, an undertaking initially begun in 2020 to engage around difficult topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. These conversations will involve all of us.

Making connections is not always smooth. Sometimes an initial conversation can feel awkward, like too much work. And we all have known the discomfort of feeling left out of a conversation, alone in a group, lonely surrounded by people. Everyone in this room has felt lonely. In that way, loneliness is a shared experience too, and empathy, which is born of shared experiences, can inspire us to reach out to that person who might at the moment be feeling alone. Be an agent of connection and allow yourself to connect.

So what else can we do to build connections? We can reach out to one another and take the time to share a smile or a laugh with someone. Relationships begin with the courage to give others a glimpse of ourselves and to offer and receive friendship.

We can extend invitations. Invitations are powerful. Since moving to Hill, Mr. de Kanter and I have been invited into many Hill spaces and we are thankful for the outstretched hands. The evening before we spent the first night in Feroe House, Doctor Malone and Mr. and Mrs. Yinger and so many others invited us to join a boisterous block party. It was great. No earth-shattering points of conversation were exchanged and no instant bonds were immediately forged, but the hand was extended, experiences were shared, and the embers of relationships were lit. And so it goes. Hold a door, greet people by name as best you can, invite someone to sit next you at dinner, ask someone to join you, someone new, as you walk to order a Mookie at the Grille, be the last to leave practice and walk next to the person who walks alone.

At Hill, we work hard to prioritize the people around us. By that I mean, the people we are with in person. Technology is awesome, AI offers an exciting new chapter, but the essential feeling of “mattering” of each Hill student comes from connections, from relationships built during our time and experiences together. Some of you have flown thousands of miles to be in person in this community, others are from much closer. Regardless of where you are from, it is the people around us, our relationships, ultimately, our connectedness that acts as the critical thread of this community.

As it turns out, we are the medicine hiding in plain sight, we are the medicine one another needs.      

Thank you and let’s have a great year.