Yearbook and Awards Assembly Honors Ms. Benedict and Students

This morning the Hopkins community gathered in the Walter Camp Athletic Center for the annual Per Annos yearbook and awards assembly. Beautiful weather, an upcoming holiday weekend, and the last day of classes underscored the general excitement of the morning. The final "award" of the day proved also to be the most emotional, as Dean of Academics Rosemary Benedict found out that the Per Annos was dedicated to her this year. The dedication inside the yearbook reads as follows:

"Whether you know her as a dedicated math teacher or the person from whom you get course changes, Rosemary Benedict has affected all of us at Hopkins. She came to Hopkins twenty years ago to teach math. Since then she has played many roles, including Department chair and Academic Dean. Her interest in teaching began in her senior year of college. She took education courses and student-taught; she has never looked back. Her first teaching job was in 1969, the year Virginia finally integrated its public schools.

Rosemary, having grown up in the north, was able to move easily between factions and helped (students and faculty) who often found themselves in an uncomfortable and stressful relationship. It was an interesting year. Outside of the classroom she has always been active outdoors. You may not know that she has successfully competed in triathlons for about ten years. She still continues to enjoy playing golf and bridge, running, biking, and skiing.

The Per Annos 2007-2008 staff dedicates this year's book to a former yearbook editor Rosemary Benedict and wishes her luck on her future endeavors."

The morning began with the Senior Class President’s traditional speech to the graduating class. Alison Lee '08 shared the following humorous and insightful thoughts with her fellow students:

I cannot sum up my experience at Hopkins in merely a few words for my time here has been amazing, surpassing all of my expectations and being more incredible than what I can even begin to describe in the next few minutes. Nonetheless, I hope you will bear with me as I try to explain why Hopkins has made such a big difference in my life, and the lives of my classmates.

It is here in this auditorium that I first entered Hopkins as a startled and doe-eyed seventh grader, both nervous and excited. This is where I have met my friends, classmates, and teammates; it is here where I have formed relationships that I am sure will extend beyond the years. At Hopkins, I have learned through my failures and my successes alike, which have better prepared me to face the unknowns of the future, like college. Most importantly, Hopkins has taught me to embrace my individuality by providing a strong foundation of friends and teachers who support and accept me as I am. So now, I stand before you, just as hopeful and as naively excited for whatever may come my way as I was in seventh grade.

However, Hopkins has changed me in other respects for the better, as it has for my classmates. Looking back at past yearbooks, I was struck by how much we had matured over the years, physically as well as mentally. For example, who can forget Josh Macey’s infamous “Tips on Kissing” from ninth grade? Or, our grade’s strange obsession with ping-pong sophomore year? What about the underground hallway of lockers that was our social lounge for between classes? We all have grown over the years, and have come a long way since freshman year. As evidence, Josh now has a girlfriend, ping-pong has long been replaced by chess, and the student lounge is now in Heath, complete with sofas and couches.

But no matter how many different phases we went through, what never changed was our enthusiasm for life and our grade-wide camaraderie. These two qualities of our grade are what make us so unique and distinguished, and they are the reasons why we have so many fond memories to look back on.

This past week, as I looked around campus, I was reminded of many stories and significant events that have unfolded here in the past six years. For example, who will ever forget the steep hill leading up to the dreaded flights of stairs, which I have run up so many times for morning assembly, gasping for air, only to realize that I was late. Or the woods, where Mr. Arango, a Spanish teacher, once got lost and confronted by a deer. And Baldwin was where someone might have accidentally opened Mr. Casanova’s antique bottle of Orangina sophomore year (Matt Taurchini). And the pit, where the infamous heart was stamped into the history of the Class of 2008.

Each and every one of my fellow classmates will have similar stories to tell about their experience at Hopkins. Similar, but unique to every person, because our grade is so diversely talented: we have athletes, mathletes, writers, artists, debaters, musicians, science geeks, club heads, and editors, although the distinctions are often blurred. Our athletes study advanced calculus and our musicians debate. And just as Hopkins has provided a place and a time to explore our many interests and expand our imaginations, we, too, have enriched this school through the different hats we have worn and the responsibilities we have undertaken. Our presence has been an integral part of Hopkins, just as Hopkins has been for us, and I believe we will look back fondly on all of the years, the sweat, the tears and the laughs that we have shared here.

In closing, I suspect that no matter how “badass” we try to be, the truth is, we respect this school because deep inside, we love Hopkins. We love it despite the hours of homework, the high expectations, the late-nights, and the early mornings. We love coming to a school that nurtures our dreams and then pushes us toward them. In all of us, there are streaks of innocence, flashes of dorkiness, and bundles of creativity that we brought with us or have developed along the way. Hopkins has helped cultivate that hopeful spirit in all of us, for which I, along with the rest of the Senior Class, will forever be thankful. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for a newer and richer experience.” Thank you Hopkins for whetting our appetites for life- may we always be hungry for more. And in the words of another famous woman, Elle Woods, I will end by saying, “Congratulations, Class of 2008. We DID IT!”