CAPTAIN'S CORNER

Dear St. Margaret's friends and families,

This year, Commencement held one more surprise for the Class of 2003-a last minute dash in high heels and white dresses to Ball Memorial Gymnasium. I'm told Commencement was last held indoors in 1975. That's an impressive record!

Fortunately, every May, we practice for two ceremonies, one inside and one on the River Lawn, and for all these years we've rejoiced to be outside. Anyone who has been on the East Coast this spring knows this has been an unusual year, so we shouldn't have been surprised when the drops started to fall 20 minutes before the ceremony was due to begin.

We were grateful for those practices as we moved quickly into the gym and proceeded with the elegant and poignant program that marks this transition from student to alumna for each of our seniors. Friends and family filled the bleachers; faculty and students stood to attention to the right and left; mothers and grandmothers of seniors took pride of place in chairs facing the graduating class; the school president entered from the wings of the stage carrying our banner; and junior marshals led the senior processional.

This was my twenty-second St. Margaret's School commencement, and, over the years, I remember feeling the full range of emotions, sometimes a tug of sorrow for losing the student I'd taught for four years who shared my passion for French literature, sometimes a sense of familiar anticipation as I watched a graduate who would follow my footsteps to Denison or the University of Virginia or France, always an appreciation for all of the people who had helped each girl become the young woman we knew she could be.

Now, from my vantage point at the podium, I can see all of those people-parents, teachers, coaches, little lantern sisters, advisors, friends. After the awarding of prizes and the conferring of diplomas, watching the girls walk away through the aisle of family and friends, I'm filled with a sense of wonder as I reflect on the accumulation of experiences which brought each young woman to this moment in her life and which will continue to influence the life she is ready to begin. Each young woman carries with her, as she goes, her own memories and her own ambitions.

To the Class of 2003, a class that really has had it all (and most of it with perfect weather!), from their own tropical, bubbly disco dinner to the most magnificent party and fireworks that Tappahannock has ever seen, we send you on your way rejoicing with pride and congratulations. We'll look forward to hearing what comes next.

Sincerely,
Margaret R. Broad,
Head of School

COMPASS POINTS

23 - SMS K.I.D.S. Camp begins

16 - Alumnae volunteer day

22-24 - Student leader retreat

24 - Day family event

25 - Invited athletes & AP calculus students arrive

28 - New international students arrive

30 - All boarding students arrive

31 - Orientation and fun day for all students