Convocation 2026: A Call to Community, Impact, and Hill’s Next Chapter
On Wednesday, September 9, 2026, after an afternoon of orientation activities, mini-classes, and enjoying the first advisory family-style meal of the year in the Dining Hall, students and faculty gathered in the Alumni Chapel for Hill’s traditional Convocation ceremony.
Below are highlights from this year’s ceremony, which kicked off the 176th academic year and the second year of celebration of Hill’s historic 175th Anniversary.
Welcome from Mr. Baum and SGA Co-Presidents
Drawing inspiration from the Chapel hymn Lord Through Changing Days and its lyrics, “Be the path through vale, up mountain,” Associate Head of School Ari Baum encouraged students to think beyond individual achievement and consider what it means to make the journey together.
He reflected on two enduring Hill traditions, gathering around the table and gathering in Chapel, as experiences that distinguish a community in which students do more than simply learn alongside one another. At Hill, we eat, sing, struggle, reflect, fail, grow, and achieve together. Those shared experiences, he suggested, are what give individual accomplishments greater meaning and allow them to endure long after students leave campus.
“Achieve what you will but seek to do so with the others who surround you … and those achievements will mean more, and will endure longer because they are shared,” noted Mr. Baum.
Connecting “up mountain” with the School song’s call of “Our High Honor, Higher Still,” he challenged students to embrace the work of becoming better as students, teammates, friends, and members of the community, while remaining open to the people and experiences around them, as well as to the generations of Hill students who came before them and those that will follow.
SGA Co-Presidents on Making An Impact
SGA Co-Presidents Jackson Bala ’27 and Jill Patel ’27 extended an enthusiastic and welcome home to the entire student body. Their remarks focused on the importance of making an impact, defining it as “the way we influence our community. It is what we do, our actions, our words, our intentions, that shape how we are perceived and how we affect others.”
Jackson and Jill shared how they hope to build their impact this year around the core values of community, engagement, and opportunity.
Jill described community focusing on the small actions that will eventually create a bigger impact in the lives of those in our community, such as sitting at a new table or saying hello to someone unfamiliar. She noted, “the best part of any trip is usually the person you didn't expect to end up next to. Save a seat for somebody. And when you need one saved for you, trust that it will be. Because at the end of the day, that is what Hillness truly is.”
Jackson emphasized that building community is done with engagement, encouraging students to “show up, be present, and give your best input.”
“Every good journey depends on people willing to pitch in and put their best self forward, and this year, we want to inspire you to be the student who engages. The more you involve yourself, the more of an impact you will leave on your peers.”
“This school is full opportunities -- classes, clubs, teams, performances, conversations, built and waiting for you to step into them,” said Jill, urging student to “don't just pass through. Buy in. You don't need to know exactly where it leads, but trust Hill to be a place to foster your best moments.”
“Every one of you sitting in the crowd today has the chance to create an impact that could make the Hill experience better for those to come,” they concluded. “It’s not a matter of finding what your pillars are, but rather understanding what Hill means to you and making the most of your journey.”
Let’s Write the Next Chapter Together Shares Head of School Devaney
After a moving performance of “Go the Distance,” featured in Disney’s Hercules, by the Hilltones and Hilltrebles, Meigs Family Head of School Kathleen Devaney offered her hopes for the year ahead.
Ms. Devaney reflected on the promise this school year and the responsibility each member of the Hill community shares in shaping it. While some of the rhythms and traditions of the coming months are familiar, she reminded students that the story of Hill’s 176th year remains largely unwritten, and its character and meaning will be determined by what students and faculty choose to contribute to it.
Ms. Devaney used the Alumni Chapel itself as a powerful symbol of that shared responsibility. Built through the generosity of alumni and expanded generations later so that the entire School could once again gather together, the Chapel represents more than a beloved Hill tradition. It is a tangible reminder that today’s students have inherited a community built and sustained by generations of people who invested in a future they would not personally experience.
“Hill is not simply a collection of individual stories and ambitions. It is a community built by generations of students, faculty, staff, and alumni who believed that their own growth was inseparable from their responsibility to others,” noted Ms. Devaney, emphasizing that inheritance was now in their collective care.
Ms. Devaney encouraged students to stretch themselves, embrace challenges, take risks, and learn from failure, while remembering that a Hill experience is not simply the pursuit of individual ambitions. Students also bear a responsibility to one another: to support a peer who is struggling, model respect and sportsmanship, help others feel welcome and seen, and continually strive to be better.
Ultimately, Ms. Devaney challenged the community to think not only about what they hope to gain from the year ahead, but also what they will give to it. Hill’s 176th year, she emphasized, will be shaped collectively by the choices its students, faculty, and staff make — another chapter in a legacy inherited from those who came before and entrusted to those who will follow.
“May we be worthy of what we have inherited and generous in what we leave behind,” said Ms. Devaney as her parting thoughts.
The ceremony concluded with the Hilltones and Hilltrebles leading the community in singing Hill's alma mater, "A Thousand Hands” and a final benediction offered by Director of Spiritual Life and Firestone Endowment Chaplain The Reverend Anne Confer Martens ’02.
