Hours remain until we can official begin celebrating the Class of 2019 with Senior Dinner and Senior Recognition Night. Commencement will follow in the morning, and then campus will be empty. An eery quiet will descend upon campus for the summer, a quiet we simultaneously crave and fear as we feel the energy of our students leave us until September. As our seniors take their final steps toward graduating, we reflect on the past week of culminating projects, visiting speakers, awards, and end of year rituals. 

The Class of 2019 is among the largest Proctor has graduated with 115 students; 115 different journeys through Proctor, 115 unique stories to tell about how Proctor shaped their lives. It is impossible to capture all the good that has happened on campus over the past few days as we celebrate our graduates, but below are a few highlights. 

We celebrated the accomplishments of many of the artists within the Class of 2019 during Wednesday afternoon's Express Fest. Student performances by Ivy Lindner '19, Kai Pilla '19, and Zach Barnes '19, Drake Leask '19, Dylan Conrad '19 and their band stole the show.  

Assembly continued as individuals were recognized for their outstanding contribution to the arts, including new inductees into the National Art Honor Society. Check out a full list of award recipients below: 

Following individual awards, National Art Honor Society and National Honor Society recognitions were bestowed upon members of the graduating class. 

Multicultural Coordinator Fiona Mills presented Kente clothes to members of the Class of 2019 who have served as integral members of Proctor's Diversity Committee over the past four years. 

Head of School Mike Henriques P'11, '15 then recognized departing faculty and thanked this amazing group of educators for their dedication to this community.  A big thank you to Jon Miller, Ilyena Kozain '10, Susan Rochon, Nina Kozain, Nora Hefner, Tim Denoncour (not pictured), Kate Sabo (not pictured), Fiona Mills (not pictured), and Lisa Scarry (not pictured). 

We concluded Express Fest with the dedication of the 2019 Green Lantern Yearbook in memory of Dave Pilla and then headed out to sunshine and blue skies to check out the yearbook and head to the field house for Senior Project Exhibitions. 

More than 90 seniors completed a Senior Project during their final three and a half weeks of the school year. Projects ranged from internships in Washington, DC to being a bike mechanic, to volunteering at the local child care center, to interning with Proctor's Dining Services team. Seeing all 90 projects on display at the same time in the Farrell Field House was a truly impressive display of hands-on learning. 

We capped an incredibly busy Wednesday evening with a special screening of Juliet Asante's P'19 award winning film Silver Rain. Juliet, whose daughter Zina will graduate tomorrow and just returned from studying on European Art Classroom, is an acclaimed film director in West Africa and shared her experiences with students following the showing (more on Juliet's visit in another blog coming soon!). 

After all underclass students departed campus mid-day Thursday, the Class of 2019 headed to Boston for a dinner cruise. Check out more photos from the evening HERE. Students returned late, slept in, were made breakfast by the Admin Team, and will soon gather for graduation rehearsal. The end is near, and those final steps across the stage will be oh so sweet. Congratulations to the Class of 2019!