This year, Spence celebrated its 129th Commencement ceremony, presenting 68 students with diplomas and offering words of guidance and congratulations from a community of peers, teachers, staff, alumnae, the Board of Trustees, and Head of School Felicia Wilks. 

Senior Speaker Lucy Thorpe characterized the Class of 2026 by employing a quote from writer Toni Morrison: “It is more interesting, more complicated, more intellectually demanding, and more morally demanding, to love somebody, to take care of somebody, to make one other person feel good.” 

Thorpe expanded on why the vibrant Class of 2026 exemplifies Morrison’s insights so well: “Rather than settle for indifference or coldness, you uplift and care for each other earnestly. You open yourselves up to friendship, community, and discussion,” she shared from the podium. “You strive for the ‘intellectually and morally demanding’ over the obvious and insincere. You seek out the ‘interesting’ over the banal, the ‘complicated’ over the straightforward.”

Spence alumna and the 2026 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for History for her 2025 publication Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution, author Amanda Vaill ’66 gave this year’s Commencement address. Throughout her remarks, Vaill emphasized the importance of following one’s own instincts, especially in a world that can feel endlessly chaotic. “In an uncertain time, respect yourselves,” she told her fellow alumnae. “Listen to yourselves, not other people’s expectations. That’s the corollary to our school’s excellent motto: Non scholae sed vitae discimus. Your parents, your friends, and your school have given you the values you’ll take out into the world. Believe in them.”

Head of School Felicia Wilks concluded the ceremony by remarking on the graduating class’ unique spirit and encouraging them to approach the future with boldness. “Do not settle for less than a rigorous engagement with the world,” she said. “Your education has been rooted in a community that nurtures the distinct strengths women bring to leadership: empathy alongside ambition, collaboration alongside conviction, and the ability to build communities where everyone can flourish. The world you are entering needs that kind of leadership, and it needs your voices.”

In addition to the remarks and presentation of diplomas, Spence’s Select Choir sang “No Time,” and Select Choir seniors sang an original a capella arrangement of “Landslide.”

Congratulations to the 68 members of the Class of 2026!

Read full remarks from Felicia Wilks here.

Read full remarks from Lucy Thorpe ’26 here.

Read full remarks from Amanda Vaill ’66 here.