As he stepped to the podium for Williston Northampton School’s 173rd Convocation, Head of School Robert W. Hill III pulled a cell phone from his pocket. With the school community looking forward to a year of new technology, it was only appropriate that Mr. Hill kick off the ceremonial beginning with what he described as a “reverse selfie.”
Mr. Hill turned his phone toward his audience and took a quick panorama of the assembled students in their formal jackets and dresses. The students waved and smiled.
In thinking about the upcoming year, 
Mr. Hill said he was reminded of another modern wonder: the Panama Canal. Mr. Hill said there was a metaphor in the human ingenuity, colossal machines, and transnational cooperation that each canal passage required.
Robert W. Hill III will be installed as The Williston Northampton School’s 19th head of school as part of the school’s annual Convocation Ceremony at 6:00 p.m., September 24, on the campus quadrangle in front of the Reed Campus Center.