Reflections on Alumni Weekend

“The campus is transformed, but it’s still my school.” That’s a sentiment I heard again and again over the course of our recent Alumni Weekend. For alumni coming back to celebrate their ten-year reunion, buildings such as the Schiff Center, the Field House, and the Middle School are new additions to the campus. The Upper School building, The Taft Early School, and Doherty’s Haile Hall are new to those celebrating their 25th or 30th. If we go back fifty years or more, the changes are even more dramatic. Attendees at our “Classics Luncheon” shared memories of their time at Miss Doherty’s College Preparatory School, Mrs. Lotspeich’s School, or The Hillsdale School. The names, the buildings, and the people themselves may have changed over time, but Seven Hills retains a culture and identity that resonate with alumni of all eras.

So many of my conversations with alumni over the weekend connected to what I’ve come to think of as the double helix of continuity and change. Unifying our campus, culture, and community and enacting our new strategic plan each involve a great deal of change. Yet these changes are rooted in our school’s “cultural DNA” — in values and practices that have always been central to our mission. In changing, we are becoming more fully ourselves.

I think of how Mrs. Lotspeich’s passion for learning in nature and the bucolic setting of the Doherty campus came together to inspire our design of the new Doherty Lotspeich Lower School as a green and welcoming “campus within the campus.” Outdoor learning is not a trend that we are chasing, but a part of our heritage that we are celebrating. 

I saw another example of this dynamic at the art show that the school hosted on the evening of Alumni Weekend. Works by distinguished alumni were hung alongside artwork created by our current students. Seeing these works in dialogue with each other was a testament to the central role that the arts have always played at Seven Hills.

Perhaps the clearest example of continuity and change lies in the profound and lasting effect that the classroom experience has on alumni of all ages. At the Classics Luncheon, alumni from the class of 1976 and earlier connected with members of the class of 2026. Though they had different teachers, peers, and classes, our alumni and seniors seem to have learned so many of the same lessons during their time at Seven Hills: how to collaborate and connect with others, how to become independent learners, how to develop their passions, and how to apply their gifts and talents to the needs of their community and world. I loved seeing these Stingers connect across the generations.

Making these connections with the alumni community is one of the great gifts of working in a school. I’ve met so many interesting and inspiring people at events like Alumni Weekend. And as an educator, it’s particularly gratifying to reconnect with alumni who I first knew as students.

During our “alumni road show” in Boston and New York this fall, I spent time with some of my former Upper Schoolers who are now in college or out in the world, launching their careers and exploring new cities. I also have the great pleasure this year of working alongside several of my former students who have joined the teaching faculty. I love seeing our alumni thriving in the world, and living up to the potential and promise that we all saw in them during their time at Seven Hills.

As we move into our final year of unification, I’m grateful for the support of the alumni community. I remember an encouraging call I received last year from an alum who had been a student at the time of the 1974 merger that produced Seven Hills. “We’ve done this before,” she told me, “and, we can do it again.” I believe this speaks to the spirit of Alumni Weekend: a celebration of the past, an appreciation of the present, and an excitement about the future of our remarkable school.