{"id":849,"date":"2015-05-23T15:30:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-23T19:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/?p=849"},"modified":"2015-05-23T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2015-05-23T19:31:49","slug":"academic-award-remarks-2015-by-head-of-school-bob-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/2015\/05\/23\/academic-award-remarks-2015-by-head-of-school-bob-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic Award Remarks 2015 by Head of School Bob Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: The following Award Ceremony Welcome was presented by Robert W. Hill III on May 23, 2014.<\/em><\/p>\n

Good afternoon and a special welcome to parents, families, guests, and to all of our students gathered to celebrate the essence of our lives at Williston: academic accomplishments. I enjoy the last two weeks of the year\u2014even as I live in mortal terror for seniors as they get closer to Commencement\u2014since the last two weeks bring us together numerous times to honor our students. Hard work, persistence, resilience, determination, integrity\u2014whether in the classroom or in an extra-curricular pursuit\u2014are traits that should always be praised and will take you far in life.<\/p>\n

What a year it has been for Williston! Yesterday we celebrated the many athletic achievements<\/a> at both the individual and team level for the spring term. Sports are always in the public eye and I confess to tweeting out scores or great plays as I see them (I do that, too, when I visit classrooms). I\u2019ve always wondered what it must be like to dunk a basketball, or play on an undefeated hockey team, or be like Gabby and never see the back of another runner for six consecutive years. That was what crossed my mind yesterday.<\/p>\n

But today, I think of the academic sphere. We witnessed acclaimed performances in the arts this year\u2014recently our Teller Chorus, Cats, and Widdigers set a new high mark with “Frostiana.” Those of you who saw or performed in As You Like It<\/em> know very well, the Williston Theatre is second to none. And the senior projects were amazing, whether you saw Gabe\u2019s cool light show last night or Nick and Matt\u2019s staging of \u201cThe Clean House,\u201d or the Grubb\u2019s Gallery exhibitions, or the integrated science presentations, the list goes on and on. This year teemed with incredible intellectual and creative accomplishments generated by students all year long\u2014often outside of the public gaze.<\/p>\n

But just as students, some of whom we will publicly recognize here this morning, work deep into the night, or spend countless hours perfecting a paper, a math proof, a lab assignment, so too do your teachers. You are supported every step of the way. Williston\u2019s teachers are unique in my experience in the ends to which they go to advise, mentor, listen, and support their students. Last second extra help? No problem. Another draft of a college essay? No problem. Inspiring you with a desire to learn for the life long quest of becoming an informed, thoughtful, and relevant member of society? No problem. Your teachers sacrifice for you all the time, and never make you feel guilty about it the way we parents do. Please join me in thanking the Williston faculty who are arrayed behind me.<\/p>\n

As I emcee today\u2019s ceremony, I ask that you pay attention to the citations that are read and attached to names from Williston\u2019s history. It\u2019s good to remember, that what we celebrate today connects us to Williston\u2019s past.<\/p>\n

See the full list of academic award winners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: The following Award Ceremony Welcome was presented by Robert W. Hill III on May 23, 2014. Good afternoon and a special welcome to parents, families, guests, and to all of our students gathered to celebrate the essence of our lives at Williston: academic accomplishments. I enjoy the last two weeks of the year\u2014even … Continue reading Academic Award Remarks 2015 by Head of School Bob Hill<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/speeches\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}