Graduates of the Bromfield School Class of 2025 walked to the school’s 145th graduation exercises Saturday morning to the bittersweet notes of Noah Kahan’s “You’re Gonna Go Far,” a fitting anthem of nostalgia and hope for a class that weathered the disruption of COVID-19 during its formative eighth- and ninth-grade years.
The morning ceremony had been postponed a day because of downpours the previous afternoon and the desire of the graduates for an outdoor ceremony. The threat of rain persisted Saturday morning as families and friends gathered under overcast skies on the field behind the school, where they heard reflections on the power of kindness, the importance of individuality, and the value of taking risks, seizing the unexpected opportunities that life presents.
Valedictorian Wendy Aftosmis addresses her classmates. MORE PHOTOS
While the attire of attendees, as one observer noted, could best be described as “garden party informal”—a cheerful mixture of flowered dresses and sports jackets, tennis shoes, sandals, and heels—the weather was far from summery. The air was cool and humid, the skies gray. As students stepped to the stage to receive their diplomas, spritzes of rain began to fall. Umbrellas—scattered bursts of color—sprouted among the standing and seated crowd.
More than 200 guests attended Saturday’s event, seated outdoors on folding chairs arranged in rows on the lawn. Roughly a quarter of the chairs remained empty—perhaps a result of the weather or the early hour. Two motorized carts on loan from Shaker Hills Golf Club were available to shuttle guests between the school’s parking areas and the graduation site.
The procession of graduates, dressed in blue robes with white stoles, emerged from Bromfield promptly at 10 a.m., led by junior class marshals Owen Balsis and Masouda Kabir, who guided the Class of 2025 to their seats in a tradition that symbolically connects seniors to the class that will follow them. Although the Class of 2025 comprises 87 graduates, six were absent.
Principal Kim Murphy welcomed the crowd and acknowledged those who brought the event to life, including the Garden Club of Harvard, which adorned the stage with fresh flowers, and the eight-member Bromfield chorus, which performed both the national anthem and the school’s alma mater.
“You are diligent, curious, and motivated,” Murphy told the graduates. “As I look at you, I see no shortage of talent or drive. But as you stand here today, poised on the edge of new beginnings, I want to share a sentiment that has guided my own path. … It is kindness and compassion that truly pave the path and make this trip worthwhile.” Quoting Mr. Rogers, Murphy urged students to be “helpers” in the world: “Kindness demands no hefty price tag … yet the returns on this investment are immeasurable and ripple outwards in ways we may never fully comprehend.”
Harvard Public School Superintendent Linda Dwight reminded students of the district’s commitment to fostering belonging—a central value she challenged students to carry with them. “Belonging doesn’t happen by chance,” Dwight said. “It must be created with intention and care. … Be the person who helps others feel that they matter,” she urged the graduates.
A teacher’s farewell
The ceremony’s keynote speaker, retiring social studies teacher Kathleen Doherty, reflected on her 37-year career in teaching—32 at Bromfield—with warmth and wit. Known for her humor and honesty, she called the graduates “resilient, curious, insightful—and yes, sometimes a little cynical.” She said she was honored but somewhat intimidated to have been chosen. Her brother had told her, she said, that being a speaker at a graduation was a bit like being a body at an Irish wake. “You are necessary for the ceremony, but nobody really expects very much from you.”
Doherty said that although she was retiring, she preferred to see herself as graduating, a member of the Class of 2025. Her advice: “Spend time outdoors. Wear sunscreen. Be kind to others, or at least be patient. You never really know what people are going through.” And lastly, she added, “Vote! Seriously!”
She acknowledged that advice can sound like clichés but she offered it anyway. “Because I love you,” she said. “We collectively, as a faculty and community, love you. And we want the very best for you.”
Salutatorian Maya Ivanov delivers her slam poetry address. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz) MORE PHOTOS
Doherty is one of six teachers retiring this year, five of whom are celebrated in this week’s Press.
Student voices shine
Student keynote speaker Zachary Lizotte delivered a message about embracing uncertainty and recognizing the power of small, everyday choices. “Great moments are born from great opportunities,” he said, quoting Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks. “To fail is to learn. To stumble is to grow.”
Valedictorian Wendy Aftosmis opened her address with a playful game of Simon Says before turning to deeper themes. “Just because we can follow directions doesn’t mean they define us,” she said, after directing the audience to stand, touch their heads, touch their knees, and sit down. “True growth happens outside the confines of a rubric.”
A poetic goodbye
Salutatorian Maya Ivanov took a different route, presenting her remarks as a slam poem filled with imagery and delivered in a spoken style reminiscent of former poet laureate Amanda Gorman, whom she admires. “We’ll trickle like rain, through country plains, and scatter like leaves, through city streets,” she wrote. “Will I know who I’m meant to be? In an ocean of water as only a drop, As an unfinished novel in the world’s bookshop, Will I see the path ahead of me?”
Her final lines brought laughter and appreciative applause:
“So most importantly
Don’t lose your originality
Write something that’s unique to you, and I’ll write something that’s unique to me
Never bound by a box, but always free
Because why write a speech, when you can write slam poetry?”
Farewell, Bromfield
Speeches concluded, students crossed the stage one by one to receive an empty diploma holder from Dwight, Murphy, and School Committee Chair Abby Besse. Class President Robyn Douglas gave thanks to senior advisors and reminded classmates of the value of showing up—for one another and for the community.
Then Principal Murphy addressed the graduates one last time. “Class of 2025, please rise,” she said, before instructing them to move their tassels from right to left. “Community of Harvard,” she declared, “I present the Bromfield School graduate class of 2025.”
In a burst of tradition, the students tossed their blue—and sometimes uniquely decorated—mortarboards into the air. Then, led once again by the class marshals, they exited down the center aisle, some strolling others running, to the closing strains of “Unwritten.”
“Feel the rain on your skin,” Natasha Bedingfield sang through the speakers, as families gathered for hugs and photos on the damp field. A whiff of celebratory cigar smoke drifted through the crowd.
To receive their official diplomas, graduates had one final task: returning their white stoles in exchange for the envelope containing the official certificate that marked the end of one chapter—and the beginning of another.
As the Class of 2025 dispersed, they seemed ready, as their processional promised, to “go far,” and as their recessional reminded them, to write a future that is still “unwritten.”
