Our mission speaks of developing adventurous thinkers and courageous, compassionate leaders. It’s a mission that drew me to Westridge and continues to inspire me in my role. And when I ask myself how these qualities develop in young people, I find myself returning to the experiences and habits that shape who students become as learners and as humans.  

"It seems to me that sharing things like each other’s 'outsized joys' and giving each other grace are some of the very building blocks of the day-to-day easy conversations that enable us to get to know each other, to trust each other more, and ultimately, as so many Westridge alums speak about, to build the lifelong friendships that hold this community together for decades and generations to come."

When I first left Westridge, there were many teachers, classes, and friendships that stayed with me. But looking back now, more than two decades later, I realize the greatest gift Westridge gave me was not a transcript, a college acceptance, or even the confidence to stand before you today.

It gave me something far more valuable: a love of learning.

Learning is not simply about acquiring information. Learning is about expanding your world. It sharpens you. Strengthens you. Empowers you. And if there is one thing I hope you remember from today, it is this:

The most powerful thing you graduate with is not what you’ve learned—it’s your willingness to keep learning. As long as you continue learning, your power will continue to grow.

And if being in a forward-thinking girls’ school teaches you anything, it is also that this isn’t just an individual thing. TentaMUS is “we”—a collective. What are the collective things you really want—for women, for marginalized groups, for the world itself? Mary Ranney’s “really want” was to form a girls’ school to give girls access to the rigors of education their brothers were getting, and here we are 113 years later with a collective want of sending all of you amazing humans out into the world to be the courageous and compassionate leaders our world so desperately needs.