The Miami Valley School celebrated its 18th Convocation ceremony this morning with video, African-inspired music, an introduction to MVS core values, and words from this years Distinguished Alumna Laura Chambers-Kersh ’94.
Convocation 2012 began with a welcome from Headmaster Peter Benedict and a full reading of “The School on the Hill,” a children’s book written by upper school English teacher Barb Cleary and artwork done by students from lower school art teacher Kathie Johnson’s classes. After reminding new and returning families and students that this is the “year of the teacher,” Headmaster Benedict introduced the featured speaker, Chambers-Kersh.
Chambers-Kersh has spent her life living out the MVS mission of compassionate global citizenship and credits her teachers and Immersion experiences to her life pursuit of practicing medicine abroad. She was shaped by her clinical work in Malawi, where she lived and worked in the maternity ward and administered health programs. Chambers-Kersh described specific and significant personal events of her time in one of the poorest countries in the world. She concluded her speech by requesting that all students recognize the value of MVS’ education, teachers, and peers. “I want you to imagine what it would be like to go to a school in Malawi where the student-teacher ratio is 100:1,” she said.
After her closing remarks, the RAMblers performed their musical showcase “Paradise,” with a soloist performance by Michael Canada ’13 and a piano performance by Ryan Wood ’16. Abigail Dickstein ’17 sang to an African-inspired song while video of Marti Ram played in the background. The mascot introduced the newly adapted MVS core values: integrity, celebration, grit, and kindness.
Convocation concluded with the transition ceremony–each kindergartner presents a rose to a graduating senior and each senior presents a book to every kindergartner. This year’s gift book was “The School on the Hill,” a published read about The Miami Valley School.
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