Aim For Your Moon

During the late afternoon on May 28, the sunshine cast a glow over rows of chairs arranged on Booth Field as loved ones awaited the procession of the inimitable Class of 2026. Framed by arrangements of purple and white flowers, the campus had transformed for the special celebration of the soon-to-be graduates.

The ceremony began with a processional led by members of the Board of Trustees and esteemed faculty and staff in academic robes, followed by the graduating Seniors—dressed in white dresses and tuxes—who walked with confidence towards the stage and into their next chapter.

A Thread that Stretches Back Nearly a Century
Board of Trustees Chair Dorothy Kim ’90 opened the ceremony by weaving together three generations of Marlborough graduates. She recalled her own 1990 graduation. It was held, she noted, in a small parking lot off Third Street and the board chair who addressed her class that day was Susanne Fitger Donnelly ’50. Ms. Donnelly had hoped, she shared, that one thing would never change about Marlborough: “The teaching of values—that is what has distinguished Marlborough in its 100-year history.” Standing on Booth Field before the Class of 2026, Dorothy offered her own promise: it hasn't. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, she expressed her confidence that the graduates’ world-class Marlborough education had fully prepared them to lead lives of purpose. 

Head of School Jennifer Ciccarelli welcomed the graduates by acknowledging the particular arc of their time at Marlborough—arriving in the fall of 2020 as the pandemic reshaped daily life, and leaving in another moment of global uncertainty. She asked them to resist the weight of the world and fully embrace what they had earned. “The world will always give you reasons to defer your joy or minimize your moment,” she said. “Don't let it. Make space for optimism. Make space for celebration. Make space to really look around at the people who love you and let yourself feel the full magnitude of what you have accomplished.”

Graduate Reflections
Class President Clara M. ’26 opened the student remarks with her characteristic warmth and wit, reflecting on what makes Marlborough genuinely unlike anywhere else. “Desperately trying to be cool,” she observed, is simply an unfortunate part of being a teenager. But at Marlborough, cool looks different. Passionate about astrophysics? Robotics? Musical theater? D&D? All of it is not just accepted but celebrated. “What all of us are so lucky to experience is that caring deeply is the coolest thing in the world at Marlborough,” she said. “I feel endlessly lucky that fitting in did not mean pretending to not care about anything.”

All-School President Rainey R. ’26 took a different angle, opening by cheerfully rejecting the ultra-independence philosophies of Ibsen, Emerson, and Nietzsche, before making a case for something the Class of 2026 knew intimately: the power of interdependence. “In ways both serious and silly, because we depended on each other, we are better,” she said. She closed with Confucius: “‘Virtue is never solitary; it always has neighbors.' And oh how lucky I am to have been neighbors with you.”

Valedictorian Rachel C. '26 built her remarks around a theme close to her heart: improvisation. From applying Derrida's philosophy in English Seminar to holding a robot together with tape and zip ties during competition, Marlborough had taught her that the most meaningful moments often begin unplanned. “Marlborough confidence isn't just a belief in our abilities,” she concluded, “but the belief that no matter who we have been, or what path we have traveled so far, we have the ability to suddenly decide to try something new, to change the trajectory of our life on a whim, to reinvent ourselves just because we want to, and still be successful.”

Head of School Remarks
Ms. Ciccarelli returned to the podium for closing remarks drawn from the Artemis II lunar mission and the lessons she gleaned from it that brought the Class of 2026 to mind.

The first lesson: Aim for your moon. Christina Koch became the first woman in history to fly to the Moon not by accident, but through years of refusing to aim for anything smaller. “I wish you audacity,” Ms. Ciccarelli said. “The audacity to name your moon, to say out loud the thing that lights you up and to pursue it without apology.”

Her second lesson for the graduates echoed Rainey’s theme of being better together: You will not get there alone. Every member of the Artemis II crew credited the thousands of people who contributed to the success of their mission. “When you find your success, and you will, look around,” she urged. “Who isn't in the room yet? Whose voice isn't being heard? And then do what Marlborough graduates do best: reach out and bring them in.”

And finally, be brilliant, but soft. The astronauts paused in the vastness of space to name a crater after a beloved wife lost. “In their greatest moment of achievement, what moved them was love,” she said. “Their expertise did not make them hard. Their historic accomplishment did not make them closed off or guarded. And that is what I want for you.”

Ms. Ciccarelli’s remarks are published in full here.

She closed with the words of astronaut Victor Glover, looking back at Earth from 250,000 miles away: “In all of this emptiness, this whole bunch of nothing we call the universe, you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist in together.”

“Class of 2026—you are our oasis. You are our bright spots. Go out there and be extraordinary. We love you, all the way to the moon and back.”

One by one, the graduates crossed the stage to receive their diplomas, each name met with cheers. The Class of 2026 then rose together to sing their class song—”Vienna” by Billy Joel—and the Alma Mater before caps flew into the air and Marlborough's newest alumnae stepped forward into whatever exciting journey comes next.

Congratulations, Class of 2026!