Rebecca Li, the Bromfield Class of 2018 valedictorian, wrapped up her high school career Friday last week with a speech that reinforced everyone’s uniqueness while questioning Principal Scott Hoffman’s trademark phrase, “There’s no kid like a Bromfield kid.” Li’s other accomplishments at Bromfield include being the recipient of the Yale Book Award and the Worcester County Superintendents’ Association Scholar Award. She is also the co-editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.
Rebecca Li delivers her valedictory speech. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Li, a Devens resident since age 3, has been a lifelong reader and described herself in an interview as a “bona fide dork.” Li has one older brother, Yicheng, who is 27 and completing graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. Her favorite part of being in school was the access to information. At Bromfield, she said, “We’re very privileged to have teachers who genuinely care about our education.” One teacher who especially stood out to her was Paul Harmon, an English teacher, who has since left Bromfield. She said, “He would always take time out of his lesson plans to reassure us about the college process or to let us discuss real-world philosophical issues.”
Li is headed to Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania this fall, planning to combine her current interests of literature and philosophy into a psychology major with a minor in neur
oscience. She described her planned study as fascinating because “I find the paradox of humanity knowing so little about the very thing that makes them capable of knowledge fascinating.”
When she learned she had been named valedictorian, she was “grateful for the opportunity,” but she said she “did not need the stress of one final speech in my life. I suppose it’s nice to be recognized, but valedictorian was never a goal that I was preoccupied with during high school.” Her speech was peppered with dry humor about who a Bromfield kid really was. She emphasized that Bromfield kids were neither perfect nor more special than students at any other school, but were still special in the sense that every person is unique.
Bromfield sensitive to criticism
While Li does appreciate her Bromfield education, she expressed concern during the interview that “Bromfield isn’t very good at taking feedback, especially criticism from students.” During Class Day, an event where seniors put together skits to commemorate their time at the school, she noted that Hoffman had criticized an act that made mention of Bromfield’s Juuling problem, asking the seniors if that’s how they wanted to be remembered. “Admittedly,” said Li, “it was one of many acts that he cut short, but considering how long he let a nonsensical swear-filled poem go on and that he didn’t cut an awkward rendition of ‘Get Up Sex Machine’ [a song by James Brown], his extreme response to an acknowledgment of a legitimate problem in [the school] seems extreme.”
Li advises students still at Bromfield to “take control of your experience. Engage with your teachers and peers. Join clubs that you care about. Speak up about things that you want to change—or praise the things that you want to continue—using all platforms that are available to you, from talking to classmates, to joining the school newspaper, to creating petitions.”
On a more humorous note she added, “And never sit in the fishbowl during lunch period—it’s vile.”
Kate Selig is a Bromfield junior.
