By Teresa Pavelich
•
June 10, 2026
Hello everyone! Thank you for being here today to celebrate this year’s stepping up and graduating students. This day is always a bittersweet one as we celebrate all their accomplishments and all their hard work while also preparing to say good-bye as they join new classrooms and embrace new opportunities ahead. They’ve earned their key of knowledge, completed their Elementary cycle, and are graduating from the Adolescent Program and are moving on to high school. As hard as it is to say good-bye as these students step up or graduate, we do so with the confidence that they are better prepared for life having received the gift of a Montessori education. It’s been a true pleasure this past week watching key recipients receive their key of knowledge and wear it proudly for all to see. I have loved hearing all the speeches from our 3rd and 6th year stepping up students and our 8th year graduates as they share their fondest memories of MSLF and offer thanks to all those they are grateful to. I love hearing what memories they will take away from MSLF with them. Baking in their Primary classroom, building forts in Elementary, finding a turtle on a nature hike, learning to play the ukulele in music, visiting Nature’s Classroom with their classmates, performing in the school play, a research project they worked on with their friends, selling coffee at Friday Markets in AP. These are just a few of the memories shared by stepping up and graduating students over the years. These are all incredible memories to have from school and to be able to take with you. But what I’ve come to realize is these are really more than just memories. These are significant, impactful moments that will likely, in some way, shape our students’ lives. They may not know it yet. But 5, 10, 20 years from now, when these memories are reflected on and shared again, they will become part of each student's legacy—a collection of experiences, values, and lessons that help define who they are and how they move through the world. And just as important, they become part of MSLF’s legacy as well. Each graduating class leaves behind something meaningful: traditions, friendships and memories that become woven into the story of our school. The theatre student will remember the feeling of performing in their first school play. The entrepreneur will remember the excitement of planning for their first school market. The new parent will share their love of nature with their child as they remember nature hikes at MSLF. These memories are moments of self-discovery. Opportunities for our students to learn about themselves. Experiences that help guide their future. These memories will be their compass as they enter high school, college and beyond, guiding them towards a joyful life. And all those they thank are the ones who helped guide them towards that joy. Their teachers, their parents, their peers will have all impressed upon them knowledge and experiences that have helped them learn, problem solve, adapt and teach others, all of which are life skills that any of us need to succeed. They enter the world well prepared for what will come next thanks to the memories they have made here. And I hope to be here long enough to hear you share them again someday as you set out to do great things. So, Graduates, no matter where your compass guides you, I hope you will always remember MSLF as we will always remember you. YOU are our memories. YOU are part of our legacy. And YOU have helped shape our future, just as MSLF has helped shape yours. So, thank you! Please join me in congratulating all our stepping up and graduating students today. Congratulations graduates!
From the teachers who have been working more than ever, to quickly transform an individualized, hands-on curriculum into distance learning, using technology and virtual tools with which they were not familiar, and daily, personalized communication and connection with MSLF children. To the parents, who have taken on a whole new role at home, as teachers and as students, learning from their children’s teachers just how to manage these many days at home, while many are also trying to work their own jobs from home, or work to save their own small businesses.
, we are comforted by the photos we have seen from our community, children at home working and building on what they have learned during the course of the school year. As Montessori students, they are naturally resilient, creative, and motivated to learn from their environment. And they are doing great!
