“Delight in the Hard Work of Becoming”: CA Celebrates Class of 2025 with Commencement Speaker Max Hall
Sunlight and shade alternated throughout the morning of May 30 as Concord Academy graduated the class of 2025. Only after every traditional aspect of Commencement concluded—from the senior breakfast to the faculty and staff receiving line—did fine weather give way to rain during the reception. Accented by performances from a student string ensemble and Chorus, it was a beautiful occasion, the first held in the spaciously redesigned Academy Garden between the new Centennial Arts Center and the Elizabeth B. Hall Chapel.
Reflecting the school’s educational philosophy, CA’s Commencement includes several unique elements. CA students graduate without awards, prizes, or diplomas with distinction—a tradition dating back more than 70 years, “in deference to our shared love of learning and focus on the process of transformation over the end product,” as Head of School Henry Fairfax remarked. In addition to honoring each individual, CA’s ceremony also emphasizes community: The class processes down the Senior Steps, pausing to sing a class song (this year, “Take on the World,” the Girl Meets World theme song), seniors applaud the faculty and staff who have mentored them, and attendees also recognize their families.
Jen Burleigh ’85, co-president of the Board of Trustees, highlighted the continuity in CA’s spirit and school culture that such traditions reflect. Having herself graduated in the same place, 40 years ago to the day, she recalled that, then too, seniors received their diplomas in random order. The commencement sock, she added, is a more recent but “fun and worthwhile addition to the ceremony.” (Filled with financial contributions from the class, the sock is given to the last senior called to the podium; anticipation keeps the occasion lively.)
Describing the class of 2025 in the words of teachers, parents, and peers, Burleigh praised the “remarkable courage and vulnerability” of their chapels, the wisdom of their senior advice, and their steadiness throughout a transitional time at CA. Above all, she said, their “ability to model community and unity and caretaking is a rare and special skill,” one the world needs more of and which will enrich every community these graduates join.
Looking forward to her own milestone reunion next week, Burleigh also encouraged CA’s soon-to-be newest alums to stay connected as they move through the coming years and decades—with their teachers, their friends, and the school.
Malik Traore ’25, student head of school, emphasized “compassion, curiosity, and community” during his speech. Reflecting on his class’s experience, he recalled how their 9th-grade year unfolded with masks and weekly COVID tests, and their later years, with changes in school leadership and campus construction.
“We definitely aren’t the loudest class, but we have left an impression on CA by being consistent, unified, and showing everyone moments of joyful chaos,” he said, while leading with “kindness and empathy.”
Malik’s advice to younger students: “Time flies. Remember to get off your screens, live in the moment, … try new things, talk to different people, explore new places, and make the most of what CA has to offer.”
Introducing this year’s commencement speaker, Kefan Cui ’25, senior class president, spoke about this “true role model” from personal experience, having spent time with him in Makers Alley and the maker space. Former CA science faculty member Max Hall, who started DEMONs, CA’s engineering club, in the mid-2000s, “always pushed every student he taught to be their best self, both intellectually and personally,” Kefan said. “Max mentored his students by working alongside them, always assuming and believing they could accomplish anything they set their sights on. At his core, Max sees the possibility in every challenge and the potential in every person.”
Hall began his commencement address with familiar, self-deprecating humor, describing the difficulty he had at first in understanding that he’d been asked to be the speaker. What moved him to accept, he said, was realizing, “This is CA being CA: I was invited to do something new and scary and awesome, for about the millionth time.”
It’s precisely what the school does, Hall said: “CA keeps inviting us to try one more thing, a little more difficult, and a little more awesome, than the last. CA keeps inviting us to grow.”
This is possible because the community is full of people who want to grow, he added: As the school changes year by year, it “keeps filling and refilling itself with adults and with students who respond, enthusiastically, ‘yes!’” And one of the best things about being a teacher at CA was his students’ insistence upon growth, progress, and quality, he said.
In 21 years of teaching at CA, Hall said, he experienced how challenging this kind of learning can be. For “people who delight in the hard work of becoming,” which Hall termed “a fair description of just about everyone in CA’s community,” sometimes easing up may be what’s needed, sometimes staying the course. He also reflected that some of his own worst mistakes brought him “to some of the best transformative moments.”
Remember those times—when “you needed to be forgiven, not cancelled,” when you “got a chance to mend what you broke,” and when “someone else knocked you off your track, and even if it took a while, you offered forgiveness”—he said. They’re what CA’s central value of common trust is all about, and what the class of 2025 can take with them as they move out into the world.
“Trust is a reservoir that fills or drains with every choice you make,” he added. “Fill it. Grow trust.”
Hall urged the graduating class to embrace being Chameleons: “Keep moving, keep leveling up. Find the other people who say, ‘Well, that’s a crazy idea—when do we start?’”
“It’s messy and exhausting, seeking wisdom and finding kindness,” Hall concluded. “But that’s your jam. You revel in the hard work of becoming. Let’s go.”
