Alumna Emily Hargroves Fisher came to Greene Street Friends School in first grade on scholarship and she has always remembered the gift of her education. She graduated from Greene Street Friends School in 1949 and went on to Germantown Friends, Vassar College and Harvard Graduate School of Education. Emily has led a variety of careers, spanning education, healthcare, and hospitality. Education has remained a priority throughout her life and she has served as a trustee for a variety of schools and colleges. One of Greene Street Friends School’s strongest advocates, Emily was a member of the Futures Planning Committee that shaped the School’s master plan and she currently serves as the chair of the capital campaign. This year we were honored to have her induct the Class of 2015 into the Alumni Association.

As an alumna of Greene Street Friends School, I am here this afternoon to welcome you into the Alumni Association. As I considered what to say today I thought back sixty-six years ago to my own graduation from this Meetinghouse.

In order to illustrate how different the school was in those days, I want you to help me do a little demonstration. Will the entire eighth grade please stand.

Now will all the boys sit down as there were no boys in the school when I graduated. Now I would like all of you who identify as children of color, please sit down as there were no children or teachers of color in the school when I graduated. Now look who is left, five girls. That is just slightly below the average class size during my seven years here. In fact the class ahead of me had only three girls. Now will you five girls look around at your classmates who are seated and think of the friendships, the fun, the experiences you would have missed if they hadn’t been in your class.

Thank you. Please sit down.

The point I’m trying to make is that Greene Street Friends is a better, more exciting school today than seventy years ago, and as a result, the Alumni Association that you are joining today is filled with lively, accomplished, and energetic men and women.

I took pleasure in reading on Facebook that Isabel Rieser, from the Class of 2006, was recently back at school talking to middle schoolers about diversity. And that on Tuesday, 2011 Nobel Prize winner Saul Perlmutter, from the Class of 1971, visited school and spoke with the seventh graders about his love of science. I enjoy seeing pictures of alumni who have returned for Alumni Day, hugging and reminiscing and catching up on each other’s lives and accomplishments. I am cheered when I learn about contributions that alumni, old and new, have made to the Annual Fund and to the Capital Campaign to build a new multipurpose building with a gym. So, eighth graders, giving back to the School will be part of your responsibility as graduates of this special place.

Although I have highlighted one of the important differences between Greene Street Friends today and sixty, seventy years ago, some important things haven’t changed. The same Quaker values that you have learned during your years here were the guiding principles when I was here: the belief that there is God in each one of us and that each person is worthy of dignity and respect. So you and I share more than the fact that we graduated from Greene Street Friends, I believe we share a code of behavior and ethics that have guided me through my life and that will help you also be good adults and citizens.

Now I officially welcome you into the Alumni Association. And because I know how well educated you are, you probably already know this, but the girls and I are each alumna spelled with an a at the end. The boys are each alumnus, spelled with an us. All together we are alumni, with an i at the end. But actually most people will just say that we are alums of Greene Street Friends, that wonderful school on School House Lane.

Welcome to you all and please stay in touch. Come back and visit. You can contribute as much to the School as alums as you did as students.