Families, friends, faculty and trustees filled the Church of the Heavenly Rest on Friday, June 12, for The Spence School’s 118th Commencement that celebrated the 60 young women in the Class of 2015.

The ceremony began with opening addresses from Head of School Bodie Brizendine and President of the Board of Trustees Bill Jacob P’19, ’21, ’26. Brizendine, in saluting new beginnings for the Class of 2015, also acknowledged retiring faculty members James Coleman, Mary Frosch, Jaya Gulhaugen and Louise Hartwell for their collective 121 years of service to the School.

Music teacher Evan Wels conducted the Select Choir and Glee Club in wistful renditions of “Carolina Pines” and “In My Life,” respectively, with senior speaker Marissa Combs ’15 sharing reflections about the Class and their Spence experience. Described by Brizendine as “grounded, balanced, full of both grace and tenderness,” Combs reflected on Commencement as “the closing of a chapter in a book in which the ending is uncertain.”

Using the example of Schrödinger’s cat, Combs explained that the theory is an example of how “each decision we make also has the possibility of creating a set of parallel narratives that run concurrently. The decisions we have made this year have felt like a step into this uncertain void because we have begun to choose our own narratives.”

Combs looked back on her time at Spence as a part of the Class of 2015, a collection of diverse individuals who care for one another. She said, “As a grade we have worked through many difficult times and changes, and have shown consistently that communication and honesty allow us to move forward...The bar has been set high for accountability and community, a legacy that I believe we have had a very large stake in.”

Frances Lodge ’15 introduced the Commencement address speaker, Ambassador Melanne Verveer, the Executive Director of the Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University and Founding Partner of Seneca Point Global. Verveer discussed the power of education, particularly in helping to empower women to fight female oppression globally. She also lauded the graduates as intelligent and accomplished with much potential to continue achieving great goals as they venture beyond Spence. “What matters most is what you choose to do with what you’ve learned,” Verveer stated. “That’s why we call this a commencement, not the end of a journey but the beginning.”

Head of Upper School Michèle Krauthamer and Academic Dean Douglas Brophy joined Brizendine for the presentation of the diplomas. In her closing remarks, Brizendine joked about giving the Class of 2015 blank diplomas, “thereby keeping you with us a bit longer.” She referred to the diplomas as a “passport for travel beyond our beloved Red Doors.”

Brizendine encouraged the graduates to never forget their days at Spence and to take care of “relationships, which always need care and sustenance.” She emphasized the interpersonal importance of moving forward in life, advising to “always try to flip that proverbial question of exploration from ‘do I understand it enough?’ to ‘do I understand you, enough?’” Finally, Brizendine urged Spence’s newest alumnae to “always and in all ways, speak up.”

View Spence’s College Matriculation List to see where our 2015 graduates will continue their academic endeavors. Congratulations!