A Joyful Farewell for the Class of 2026

The morning felt both celebratory and full of gratitude: a day of diplomas and awards, but also of thanks for the people who helped them arrive at this moment, the friendships that carried them through four years, and the Marymount home they helped shape with such heart. 

Head of School Dr. Fadia Hefni Desmond ’90 opened the ceremony by calling graduation “more than a ceremony,” describing it as “a moment of deep gratitude” for the families, teachers, mentors, friendships, traditions, and memories that shaped the class. Speaking to the graduates, she named what so many in the community have seen in them all year.

“You have led this school with warmth and confidence,” she said. “You have brought laughter into our hallways, pride to our traditions, and heart to this community.”

That gratitude carried into the invocation offered by Maya W. ’26, who reflected on the journey from freshman orientation to graduation morning. She remembered how the class once arrived with nerves and uncertainty, and how, over time, Marymount became something much deeper.

“Those initial feelings of nervousness have been shaped into feelings of belonging,” Maya said, “making Marymount, this once unfamiliar place, into a second home.”

Student speaker Suhailah T. ’26 gave that transformation a voice of its own. With humor and heart, she recalled her first day on campus — Sunset Boulevard traffic, a blazer, sparkly new penny loafers, and the first glimpse of what she would come to call “Marymount magic.” But as she told her classmates, that magic was never just a feeling. It was “a recipe or a blueprint,” built through challenging classes, meaningful conversations, school traditions, laughter, and sisterhood.

For Suhailah, the gift of Marymount was not only what the class learned, but how they learned to see one another: not as competitors, but as sisters “to build up and stand with.”

Commencement speaker Adrienne Bankert, Emmy Award-winning journalist and author, offered the Class of 2026 a message rooted in humility, kindness, faith, and service. Drawing from her own life and career, Ms. Bankert encouraged the graduates to enter the next chapter with confidence, but also with the awareness that strength includes knowing when they need help. “Humility is realizing not just that you want to save others, but that you need to be saved as well,” she told the class.

Ms. Bankert spoke candidly about the challenges that come with transition, reminding graduates that even the most gifted and prepared young women will face moments of uncertainty, disappointment, and pressure. In those moments, she urged them not to turn inward, but outward.

“When life feels like a shipwreck,” she said, one of the best ways forward is to serve someone else. “Do something for someone that they can’t necessarily do for themselves because you’re going to take the focus off you.”

Her address also challenged graduates to protect their kindness in a world that may test it. “The world will try to steal kindness from you,” Ms. Bankert said. “You have a choice to make.”

She encouraged the class to surround themselves with people who will tell them the truth, to learn from failure without being defined by it, and to remember that faith can be a source of strength when they feel alone. Her closing charge connected directly to Marymount’s mission and the life the graduates are now called to build beyond campus.

“The world needs what you’ve received here,” she said. “You have now been sent out as ambassadors and emissaries so that you can take what is so beautiful here — the community, the support — and never let it leave your heart.”

Following the conferral of diplomas read by Academic Dean Julie Whittell, and the presentation of special awards, Assistant Head of School Dawn Regan spoke about the legacy of the Class of 2026. She shared that when she revisited reflections the students had written about belonging, friendship, leadership, and the kind of people they hoped to become, the same words appeared again and again: kindness, joy, community, inclusion, and showing up for one another.

“You did not simply write about those things,” Ms. Regan said. “You lived them.”

Ms. Regan reminded them that a full life is not a perfect life, but “a life awake to other people.” Then, as families, faculty, staff, and friends extended their hands in blessing, the Class of 2026 received one final prayer from the community that has watched them grow. “May you go forward boldly,” she said. “May you lead with compassion. May you remain open to joy. May you continue to choose community over division, hope over cynicism, and love over fear.”

For the Class of 2026, graduation was a farewell to the place that became home—and a beginning. They leave Marymount as students shaped by friendship, faith, courage, and joy, ready to bring life into every room they enter.