Good morning and welcome to the Graduation Ceremony for the Class of 2022. This is the first graduation we have held in the amphitheater with the full school present since June 2019. Hearing the students sing as the graduates walked in this morning I was reminded of how much our school’s traditions have meant through the years. It is such a gift to have this important tradition back. I want to extend a special welcome this morning to the guests on stage with me, including Chair of the Board of Trustees Chuck Hammers, Mayor of Los Gatos Rob Rennie, Head of Middle School Amy Hand, 8th grade level coordinator and US history teacher Kevin Jacobson, and Bailey Borbas, graduate from the Class of 2018.
Today marks a significant transition for the dynamic young people seated beside me on the stage. Yet they are not the only ones who are undergoing change. In front of me sit their proud parents and in many cases proud grandparents, uncles, aunts, and siblings. For the parents, today also marks a major milestone. I hope that your sons and daughters have thanked you for all of the love and support you have provided through their years at Hillbrook, but if, by chance, they have not, let me, on their behalf, thank you. You have given them the gift of an extraordinary educational foundation, a gift that will stay with them throughout their lives.
The Class of 2022 is 33 students strong, A number of you have been here since JK and K – I counted 12 lifers! – a few joined just this year, and many joined along the way between 1st and 7th grade. All of you have spent some of the most formative years of your lives on our campus, learning, growing, sometimes falling, getting back up and challenging yourselves to be your best.
From your earliest years, we have tried to instill in you the belief that you can be a changemaker, that you can make the world a better place. Anyone at any age can ask themselves the Scott Center’s two core questions – what matters to me and what am I going to do about it? And then, as we have seen from so many of you through the years, you can and will go out and do something. From food drives for refugees to diaper drives for low-income families, you have time and again shown a willingness to apply the knowledge, skills and confidence you have gained here to help solve problems beyond our campus.
As each of you highlighted last week during the Social Impact Summit, there are some big problems out there that you care about. Climate change, internet privacy, racial justice & stopping Asian hate, social media and mental health to name just a few. All of these are big, complex problems that do not have simple solutions. As one of your classmates mentioned during his keynote presentation, the size and complexity of these problems can sometimes leave us feeling hopeless. What do we do in those moments? What do we do when the problems we face seem insurmountable?
Recently, I’ve found inspiration in an unlikely place – Marvel Movies. Two recent movies in particular – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spiderman: No Way Home – introduced a concept that I have not been able to stop thinking about. What concept? The multiverse. For those who are not familiar with it, the idea of the multiverse is that beyond the observable universe, other universes may exist. Now, within the world of Marvel, the concept of multiverses plays out in the idea that these universes are similar to our own so that if we can jump between them we can meet other versions of ourselves. My favorite example of this was in Spiderman: No Way Home, in which three Peter Parkers (aka Spider Man) – played by the actors who have played the role over the last 20 years – are all together at once. Peter #1, Peter #2, and Peter #3 join together to fight off evil and save the day.
Now, that’s certainly a fun idea. The idea that in other universes a Hillbrook graduation is happening right now but perhaps in slightly different ways. Maybe in one of the universes the uniform colors are different, or the songs that they sing for the ceremony have changed. Even better, perhaps in some of those universes they didn’t face a pandemic over the past few years. What would I say to another Mr. Silver if I jumped into that universe at this moment? Or him to me? What would you say to your alternative self?
What makes this more than just a fun thought experiment is that scientists believe that the multiverse may be real. Now, to be clear, scientists are not necessarily envisioning the multiverse as it appears in the Marvel Comic movies or as I just described it. They do, however, believe that other universes might exist. In other words, beyond our universe – which is already something that is difficult to imagine given its size – they believe there may be even more universes. Stop for a moment and think about that. It’s hard to imagine.
Now back to where I started a minute ago, why do I suggest that you think about the multiverse in moments of doubt? Because, at least to me, the idea that this is possible suggests that so many other things are also possible. If other universes exist, it is yet another example of something out there that is beyond our ability to understand at this moment. And that means that while the current problems we face may seem insurmountable at times, we need to remind ourselves that there is so much we don’t yet know and that includes all types of ways we might solve some of these current problems if we just continue to ask questions, look for possible solutions, and make the effort to move things forward.
Your class – the Class of 2022 – is so well positioned to be the superheroes we need to make the world a better place. Armed with our core values, a strong academic foundation, a belief in the possible, and an ability to tell a joke – something every great superhero needs in moments of crisis – you are ready to go beyond our campus and make a difference. You don’t need all the answers – indeed, as concepts like the multiverse remind us, we will never know everything – you just need a little bit of kindness, a strong dose of curiosity, a willingness to take risks, and a commitment to something bigger than yourself. Congratulations on your graduation, Class of 2022. I can’t wait to see what you do in this universe and beyond.