It was a time of laughter and some tears; of celebration and lots of gratitude. As the Principia Upper School gathered at Ridgway Auditorium this May to commemorate the Class of 2025, students, faculty, family, and friends looked enthusiastically forward while also holding a sentimental spot for the memories made. 

The end of the school year brings an array of opportunities to reflect on the students’ journeys—Boys’ Org and Girls Swing Out dinners, the Cum Laude celebration, a parents’ gratitude circle, and, of course, graduation among them. And while everyone feels the effects of the transition from student to graduate, it is the students themselves who perhaps feel it the most deeply. 

Sharing gratitude at the Upper School Girls’ Swing Out dinner, Imani Miller (US’25) summed up the feeling on campus perfectly. “Thank you, Principia. Thank you for your lessons, the laughter, the love, the growth. I’m walking away with more than just memories. I’m walking away with a stronger sense of who I am.” 

Speaking at the traditional end-of-year Boys’ Org dinner, graduating senior Shawn Kawesa (US’25) said, “As we move forward to the next step of our lives, we do so knowing we’ve been given something truly rare: a community that believed in us before we even believed in ourselves.” 

Kawesa added, “We made it. And now it’s our turn to bring what we’ve learned at Principia to a world waiting for our light to shine.”