GPS seniors re-purposed their May Day dresses for the Senior Dinner
A Tradition Returns
A little over 20 years ago, each graduating class was honored with a dinner and nostalgic presentation by a selected faculty member. The Senior Dinner tradition, which stopped in the early 1990s, returned on Tuesday.
“I have learned about a few traditions that are no longer a part of our GPS experience,” said Head of School Dr. Autumn Graves, finishing only her second year at the helm. “The Senior Dinner is one of those and one that I thought important to bring back.”
Her introduction to the evening was followed by an invocation by math teacher Diane Walker, who noted that the dinner was the girls’ last meal at GPS. She encouraged the seniors to instead think of the dinner as “the first meal together in a lifelong sisterhood who have been honored” to wear the GPS dress. “Love, serve, and encourage one another,” she said.
After dining hall favorites such as poppy seed chicken and chocolate chip cookies, the event turned to talks by faculty member Callie Hamilton, a teacher who has taught each girl at least once if not twice; and alumnae Bailey Hixon Bullard ’06 and Anne Campeau Burley ’05.
Mentioning each girl and her talents, mischievousness, interests, leadership, and personality, Ms. Hamilton compared the seniors' seven years at the school to a kaleidoscope “backlit with friendships.” Noting that kaleidoscope is a Greek word meaning “beautiful to see,” she described the girls as scientists, mavericks, techies, creatives, multi-faceted, curious scholars, and optimistic problem-solvers. Looking out over the tables of seniors, many who had re-purposed their May Day dresses for the event, and several who were wiping away tears, she challenged them to “savor this present of saltiness and sweetness.” GPS, she said, “has been enriched by your diversity. The world needs more like you.”
Welcoming the Class of 2016 into the sisterhood of GPS alumnae, Bailey Bullard said, “GPS has equipped you with the ability to run toward danger, to reach beyond your level of comfort and to shake up the conventional idea of wisdom. Remember how you got where you are and those teachers who inspired you.”