DEERFIELD — Deerfield Academy’s Class of 2022 convened for a moment of “history” that Head of School John P.N. Austin said was “just beginning to be written” during their commencement on Sunday.
Hundreds clad in fine attire enjoyed the sunlight as they congregated outside the event tent in anticipation of the students’ arrival at around 10 a.m. The Deerfield Academy String Quartet played a rendition of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Spring” before yielding the day’s sounds to bagpipes, trumpets, drums and fifes ushering in staff and graduates. Following a brief invocation courtesy of Dean of Ethical and Spiritual Life Jan Flaska, speeches were delivered by Austin, board of trustees President Brian Simmons, seniors Camryn Purinton Howe and Dominic Sessa and keynote speaker Judge Victor Wright.
Flaska opened the ceremony by emphasizing to students that what they had gained during their time at Deerfield Academy would be versatile and serve them continuously.
“Your reach is wide,” he said. “Your gifts are many. Your presence is a celebration and your gifts are secure.”
When Simmons took up the microphone next, he highlighted the necessity of community togetherness as he acknowledged what each student gained at Deerfield Academy.
“No one who walks upon this stage and shakes the head of school’s hand and receives their diploma can say they did it by themselves,” he said.
Austin carried this theme forward even further during his subsequent speech.
“All of these moments and many, many more that come to mind are acts of collective achievement,” he said of the students’ accomplishments during their time at Deerfield Academy.
He concluded his speech by stressing the notion that contributing to the journeys of others should double as an act of self-fulfillment.
“Nothing of meaning or lasting significance is accomplished alone and no joy is complete unless it is shared,” he said.
The senior addresses each balanced elicited laughter with powerful reflection, with Howe comically contrasting her experience as an unsuccessful water polo player with the beauty of dedicating flowers to loved ones and Sessa comparing his student experience to the life of his former hamster.
“Spinning, spinning, spinning, am I worthy yet?” he yelled, lining up his hamster’s seemingly directionless and boring wheel-running to the fatigue of his routine studying and forced socialization before he made a lifestyle change.
Wright, who graduated from Deerfield Academy in 1984, comically and ironically used his speech to “challenge the notion that crime doesn’t pay.” The California Superior Court judge recalled being a young boy in Compton defying the law, racial barriers and parental expectations in order to take his SSAT exam and mail in an application to Deerfield Academy.
“What I had to do to get counted amongst you was all worth it,” he said.
Hampshire County grads
Grace Arcoleo of Amherst, Jake Fillion of Granby, Gabriella Foulkes of Amherst, Millie Gu of Amherst, Quinn Hampson of Amherst, Edward Hathaway of Northampton, Sara Ito-Bagshaw of Hadley, Kylie Kittredge of Amherst, Samuel Thiel of Amherst and Anna Zusi of Leeds.
Chase Cherewatti of Sunderland, Tynan Creagh of Deerfield, Julia Hioe of South Deerfield, Camryn Howe of Deerfield, Kelly Howe of Deerfield, Blair Huang of Deerfield, Benjamin Martino of South Deerfield, Morgan Moriarty of Deerfield, Claire Patton of South Deerfield, Granger Savage of Deerfield, Julia Shulman of Sunderland, Holden Woodward of Northfield and Gabriel Zaccheo of Greenfield.
Joseph LoChiatto of Feeding Hills, Robert Miele of Westfield and Lauren O’Donald of West Springfield.