Featured News

A year of challenge and hope concluded in a joyously familiar way on Friday, June 11, when Concord Academy honored the class of 2021. Eighty-six graduates were celebrated in the Academy Garden along with 11 classmates who joined them by livestream.

From visual and performing arts to senior projects and Tech Expo, take a look at some of the amazing projects and performances CA students shared at the end of the 2020–21 school year.

CA’s winter 2021 mainstage production, Baltimore, was presented virtually on May 22 and 23. Written after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, the play tackles a racist incident on a predominantly white college campus and the 12 hours that follow. Playwright Kirsten Greenidge worked with the cast during rehearsals and took part in a pre-show discussion.

A surprise field day on Friday, May 21, gave CA students an opportunity to switch gears and enjoy each other’s company. Red and Blue Day in 2021 involved a Wit ’N Grit course around campus, appreciation activities, a dunk tank, and most of all, a chance to come together as a school community.

During her 2021 Davidson Lecture on April 14, Helen Suh ’21 urged CA students to explore widely. The environmental epidemiologist discussed her research on air pollution and how she has responded to the pandemic in her work.

We are excited to announce the hiring of Grant Hightower as CA’s new director of community and equity as of July 1, 2021. A seasoned diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) activist, practitioner, and consultant, he will assist our community in realizing a central tenet of the school’s mission, “striving for equity.”

On February 24, Concord Academy welcomed representatives from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights to speak with students about their work advocating and organizing for democracy, justice, inclusion, and opportunity for all people in the United States. The event took place thanks to the coordinated efforts of 9th grade class student leaders, who modeled coalition building in initiating this all-school assembly, coordinating with affinity groups and the Community and Equity Office to create and host this opportunity for school-wide learning and reflection. Affinity groups have also been engaging the CA community in Black History Month initiatives throughout the month.

CA’s 2021 Centennial Hall Fellow, entrepreneur, author, and public speaker Mallika Chopra ’89, spoke about her personal journey and her experience teaching meditation and speaking about living with intention, balance, and purpose. As part of the Centennial Hall Fellow series, she shared a brief meditative practice — a simple yet powerful tool for charting a course according to our deepest desires and values.

The 2021 MLK Day program featured a panel discussion with local BIPOC community activists, several workshops — including one by CA alumna Daysha Veronica ’10 — and a Q&A and keynote reading by celebrated poet Danez Smith. The CA community was asked to focus through a specific lens: imagining a liberated future that uplifts and centers Black people, communities, and culture.

When Sarah Yeh P’24, Ph.D., assumed the role of Concord Academy’s interim head of school on November 2, she put her experience as assistant head, dean of faculty, and passionate teacher in service of this school, to which she is deeply committed.