Yesterday, we saw the graduation of our 2020-2021 Grade 12 students. We are all so proud of their achievements, resilience and grit in the face of a global pandemic and also the young adults they have become. They are a product of an ISR education, a truly international education, and we stand with them on the precipice of their future.
My Address to the Class of 2020-2021
ISR 2011 alumni, Anna Rauter, called to our graduates, ‘It’s in our hands to create the future and design it the way we want. This is our generation’.
This is a truth. You have an ISR education. You are primed and ready not only to contribute to your generation, but to lead your generation.
What does this really mean?
It means that you have strong academic foundations, that you are willing to be challenged and to challenge. You know how to effectively present a point of view, to be persuasive and to influence. (I know that only too well!)
It means that you can walk through the world and build relationships with people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences, because you know how to celebrate diversity and inclusivity. You are citizens of the world.
You have strong and core values that will be your compass throughout your lives, and the lives of those you touch.
There will be challenges ahead; like all good journeys it is the diversions that we remember. And you have grit and resilience that will enable you to face struggle, to experience difficulty, to rise and learn.
You will strive for excellence but not perfectionism. You know that you are likely to fail many more times than succeed. But you also know that you will succeed.
You are ISR.
You are ready and have the skills, aptitude and support of us all; your teachers, your friends and, of course, your lovely families.
As you enter this next phase in your lives, we are with you and will stay with you always.
To the community that is celebrating you today, whether those watching at ISR, around the world or here in the Sal, I want to thank you too.
To parents, this is an important day, a significant day. A rare moment where we all stop to mark a moment in your child’s life; a marker from childhood to adulthood. You have done it parents. You have got them to this place, and they are thriving!
And now to our graduates. Amanda Gorman, America’s youth poet laureate, in ‘The Hill We Climb’ said:
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it
Amanda Gorman
As ISR graduates you are brave to see it, be it and live it.
You are brave enough to be the changemaker generation.
You are brave enough to lead your generation.
ISR Grade 12 Graduation – Monday 7th June 2021
Photo @ISRheintal
“Great leaders inspire greatness in others” 