Principal Jim O’Shea applauds Bromfield’s Class of 2009 as Caitlin Nygren leads her classmates off the stage. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz) MORE PHOTOS

Class Marshal Ben Landry led the 101 members of the Bromfield School graduating class of 2009 across the Bromfield playing fields and into the bleachers on June 5, asking them to take their seats on a cool spring evening to the last strains of Sigur Ros’ “Hippipolla.” Framed by magnificent arrangements of peonies, irises, rhododendrons, and daisies designed by Teddy Coffin and arranged by Maria Day and other members of the Harvard Garden Club, Principal Jim O’Shea welcomed the large crowd of families and friends to the 130th graduation exercises.

O’Shea said the evening was a time of celebration after a year of enormous challenges. The class met these challenges with exceptional maturity and a committed volunteer spirit, he said, uniting behind the losses of counselor Gary Fernandez and freshman Jessie Peterson, and the tribulations of the mid-December ice storm. He was pleased to know the town had such an outstanding group of seniors, he said. The many joys and concerns of the year seemed best captured in a poem by Mother Teresa, which he recited before turning the podium over to Schools Superintendent Dr. Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson characterized the class as confident, competent, and caring. Looking ahead to the future, he asked them to “listen” to their hearts and “live” their passions. He told the students that in 20 years many of them would be working in professions that have not yet been invented.

Teacher and keynote speaker Steven Besold followed Jefferson, and led off with an inspirational “Yes, we can!” message that affirmed each student’s ability to change the world for the better. Every student has the vision and ability to do that, he said, because he or she has been able to deeply cultivate interests and identities as a result of the school’s tradition of respect for what makes each student unique. “Bromfield set the standard for all other schools because it set the standard to be different,” he said. In concluding his speech, he gave the class a directive to be unafraid to take on the challenges of the 21st century.

Salutatorian Emily Reedich echoed Besold when she spoke of “the true gift of Bromfield”—the chance to develop as an individual while also being part of a united class.

Valedictorian and class President Sam Dorward struck a different note in his address, asking the audience to cross out the word “valedictorian” in their programs and write in “storyteller.” He told a story of the class as sixth-graders, when they were a carefree group with smiling faces that was captured in pictures taken by their parents. There is no one way to capture that kind of lighthearted happiness in future years, Dorward said. He observed, “Happiness and success are not formulaic.” Every member of the class of 2009 will have to find his or her own path, he said, then ended by saying that the class would again have many moments of the joy they so effortlessly experienced as sixth-graders.

After many awards were presented , the students received diplomas from O’Shea and Jefferson, shook hands with associate principal Scott Hoffman and members of the Harvard School Committee, and took their seats again to hear O’Shea’s closing remarks.

When the first notes of “Work It Out” were heard, cigars came out and mortarboards flew.