"Fulfill the Mission of Your Generation"

Graduates in the Form of 2018 are part of a generation that can—and must—change the world.
 
Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka—undersecretary general of the United Nations, executive director of UN Women, and former deputy president of South Africa—expressed hope and high expectations when she addressed Groton School’s 133rd commencement, known as Prize Day, imploring Groton's graduates to tackle the world’s most entrenched problems.

This generation is the first with “a real possibility to end extreme poverty in the world,” the first “with a possibility to change gender relations,” and “the last generation with a possibility to save the planet,” Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka said.
 
As part of the largest generation of young people ever, 1.8 billion strong, “you are a power bloc," she told the graduates, "which means you can be a force for change in the world." Citing young, effective activists such as Nobel Prize winner Malala Zousafzai and the teens in Parkland, Florida, who began the #neveragain movement against gun violence, she said, "Right now, young people are leading extraordinary movements around the world.” She also pointed to what happens when young people don’t show up, explaining that many young voters in the United Kingdom regret not casting a ballot against Brexit.
 
Today's pressing global challenges align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015 and intended to work toward peace, protecting the planet, bringing prosperity to more people, and balancing power relations between the genders. “We now only have twelve years left to achieve these goals, which means much of their success also depends on you as young people, working with determined adults and leaders,” she said. 
 
Beyond fighting for gender equity and equal pay, the speaker took time to focus on the prevalence of child marriage, surprising many listeners with the fact that only three states in the U.S. outlaw it. She stressed the importance of men embracing feminism and urged the males in the Prize Day tent to join UN Women’s HeforShe movement, through which males support gender equality.
 
As if to lift the weight of the world, at least momentarily, Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka also assured the graduates, “You must also enjoy being young . . . We are not asking you to be a saint. We are just asking you to be good human beings, to be kind, to care for others, but also to have fun.”
 
Still, her conclusion was a call to action: “You are a generation that can change the world. You have the power, the technology, the numbers. Go out now and fulfill the mission of your generation."

Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka was the fourth and final speaker at Prize Day, appearing just after the awarding of Groton’s traditional prizes and before the granting of diplomas.
 
Headmaster Temba Maqubela opened the commencement with a welcome and spoke about the graduating form, many of whom started on the Circle at the same time as the Maqubelas. “They knew us as rookies,” he said of a group extraordinarily “convivial, inclusive, and affable,” but also one that leaves a lasting imprint through their advocacy for change. Mr. Maqubela also feted retiring teachers: Hugh Sackett, a Classics teacher who completed sixty-three years at Groton; Jonathan Choate, with a fifty-two-year career in mathematics; Beth Van Gelder, who taught art at Groton for thirty-nine years; and Bill Maguire, who taught math for thirty-three years.
 
Also speaking was Board of Trustees President Jonathan Klein P’08, ’11, ’18, who reflected on the value of a Groton education but this year spoke with the unique perspective of a graduate's parent. “Whatever your feelings about Groton School now, I can guarantee that when you reflect on your Groton experience over the coming years and decades you will grow fond of this place and appreciate so many aspects of it that are sometimes forgotten in the busy and sometimes over-scheduled days and nights you have spent on the Circle,” Mr. Klein said. “Certain attributes of this place will stay with you forever—the special relationships; the connection and engagement with one another and the broader community; the extraordinary quality and dedication of your teachers; morning Chapel; milk and cookies, and the enjoyment of being part of an intimate environment where high standards are expected.
 
He also noted milestones that the Form of 2018 experienced: the completion of the Schoolhouse expansion and the success of GRAIN (GRoton Affordability and INclusion), which has resulted in equal acceptance rates for students needing financial aid and those who don't. “You’ve lived and breathed inclusion,” he said.
 
The only student speaker, selected by his peers, focused on his realization that the caring shown at Groton might not be quite so prevalent in college and beyond. “I realized that . . . the mindset of expecting to be cared for is an eminently Grotonian one,” said Christian Carson ’18 in a speech laced with levity. “I’ve observed that just about everyone in this community defaults to a state of caring about other people.
 
“We all know the sorts of care I’m describing. Roommates who can always find time to talk. English teachers who write full-page comments on essays regardless of the amount of effort we put into them. A history teacher who took time out of his sabbatical year to exchange emails with us about what turned out to be our astonishingly mediocre research paper, not that we’re bitter. The point of all this being that it is impossible to escape being cared about here.”
 
In Christian’s eyes, caring itself is the Form of 2018’s legacy to the school. “When we have left here, when nothing remains but our names engraved on a couple of plaques,” he said, “we will be able to take solace in the fact that the care that we have both given and received will live well past us.”
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