On April 21, Roxbury Latin celebrated in Hall the 12 members of Class I whose efforts and accomplishments have earned them membership in the Cum Laude Society. Each spring, the all-school Cum Laude ceremony honors the life of the mind—affirming that at the heart of a good school is scholarly engagement.

“This special event is intended principally to do two things,” began Headmaster Kerry Brennan. “The first is to recognize the most distinguished scholars of the First Class. In their efforts and in their accomplishments, they have put to good use the gifts they have been given… The second purpose of this annual ceremony is in many ways the more consequential, for it involves everyone else in this room. In honoring these 12 boys, we are honoring the life of the mind; we are honoring trying hard and doing well; we are affirming that at the heart of a good school is scholarly engagement. I admonish you to take to heart the example of the inductees… All of you boys have the capacity to strive, to grow, to change, and to know the satisfaction of ideas unearthed and potential realized.”

The school was honored to welcome Dr. Cathy Hall, Head of School at Noble and Greenough—RL’s friendly rival and neighboring independent school—to deliver the induction address.

“Those of us who lead schools lose a lot of sleep these days,” said Dr. Hall. “As we worry about the many challenges that surround our students and our faculty, we are also—as educators—inherent optimists, always seeking out the silver lining and the great hope around the corner. Our great hope, of course, lies in you… While there has never been a more challenging time to be an educator, I believe the same is true about being an adolescent. Your world as teenagers is threaded with complexities and challenges I never envisioned when I was your age. You are surrounded by a climate riddled with hateful accusations and woefully lacking anyone seeking to give one another the benefit of the doubt. Your news feeds highlight people who simply shout louder when they disagree, where anonymous and angry attacks through social media are the norm and kindness from strangers is harder and harder to find. It is increasingly difficult to have a shared belief in what the truth actually is, as facts that felt non-negotiable a decade ago are now politicized and confused. As teenagers, you also see all around you the cost of mistakes, even unintentional small mistakes, in society’s eagerness to label, malign, and marginalize one another. With that less than upbeat backdrop, it is easy to feel helpless to make a difference. The forces that have created this toxic climate extend so far beyond our reach, right? 

“This is when my inherent optimism kicks in, when I look to our students—to my Nobles students and to each of you—with great hope, but also with great need. When you head forth from Roxbury Latin as graduates, whether that is later this spring or in five years, it will come at a time when the world needs your leadership and service, your kindness and compassion, like never before. Now, more than ever, when you live out the missions of our schools, you will be making an impactful difference in the lives of others and the world around you.” Dr. Hall went on to implore students to do five things along their journey: find their unique voice; listen well; disagree respectfully; be honest and kind; and take care of themselves, mentally and emotionally, as well as physically.

“You are surrounded by a world that is simultaneously hurting, healing, and hopeful—a world still reeling from the pain wrought by the pandemic and our reckoning with systemic injustices, one that is increasingly fractured and fighting. It is also a world that is lifting its head up optimistically as you step forward to lead and to serve, filled with so much light and hope for what your future will bring.”

With lively renditions of Gaudeamus Igitur and The Founder’s Song as bookends to the celebration, Mr. Josh Cervas, president of RL’s Cum Laude chapter, provided a history of the organization before he awarded the twelve inductees their certificates: “By formally recollecting our origins each year, we also reaffirm our commitment to the Society’s original and abiding motto—three Greek words inspired by the three letters of the old Alpha Delta Tau name: Alpha stands for Areté (Excellence), Delta for Diké (Justice), and Tau for Timé (Honor). These three words, with deep roots in our past and far reaching implications for our future, raise qualities of mind and character which, ideally, each member of the Society will espouse as his own values and strive to instill in others throughout his life.”

The following seniors were inducted into the Cum Laude Society this year:

Eli Bailit
Vishnu Emani
Liam Finn
Liam Grossman
Frankie Gutierrez
Mark Henshon
Colin Herbert
Josh Krakauer
Kayden Miller
David Sullivan
Theo Teng
Alex Yin

Bats often get a bad rap. They’re construed as the spooky creatures that haunt us on Halloween, accompanying vampires and the like. They’re falsely assumed to always carry rabies and drink blood. When in fact, bats—the world’s smallest mammal, and the only one that can fly—of which there are more than 1,400 species, make up a quarter of all mammalian diversity, and they play a key role in insect control, plant pollination, and seed dispersal.

On April 19, Dr. Winifred Frick—one of the world’s foremost experts on bats—spoke to students and faculty in the Smith Theater to sort fact from fiction when it comes to these creatures, and to illuminate the critically important role that bats play in our ecosystem—why it’s important that we work to protect them, and how we might do just that.

Dr. Frick is the Chief Scientist at Bat Conservation International, an organization working to protect bats and their habitats through conservation, education, and research efforts. Dr. Frick is also an associate research professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental studies. Her research focuses on how bat populations respond to both human-generated and natural stressors, and how we can best use science to inform conservation efforts. Dr. Frick and her team combine quantitative approaches with empirical field research—primarily in the Sonoran Desert, Sea of Cortez, and Baja California Peninsula—investigating disease ecology, population and behavioral ecology, and aeroecology.

In Hall, Dr. Frick focused on the great diversity in bat populations—on where the animals live and what they eat, on how their physical features and physiology vary from species to species, and how humans contribute, positively or negatively, to their protection and habitat conservation.

One illuminating story that she shared, about the nature and rewards of her work, featured her team’s collaboration with Rwandan conservationists and officials as they sought to find the elusive (and potentially extinct) Hills’ horseshoe bat, last seen in 1981 in Rwanda’s Nygunwe National Park. With the help and guidance of a generous team of local collaborators, and a harp trap, on the tenth morning of their ten-day exploration, Dr. Frick and her team trapped and successfully identified the first Hills’ horseshoe bat seen in the wild in four decades. 

“I find scientific research incredibly rewarding and satisfying in many ways,” Dr. Frick has said. “I love all aspects of research—from being in the field and observing nature, to designing a study, to answering interesting or important questions, to analyzing the data we’ve collected in the field, and finally writing up what we’ve learned to share with others. People often think science isn’t creative, but I find research to be an incredibly creative process. Good science combines natural curiosity, a dedicated work ethic, and remembering to have fun.”

Dr. Frick earned her Ph.D. at Oregon State University and is internationally renowned for her research on the disease ecology and impacts of White-nose Syndrome, a fungal disease that has killed over six million bats in North America. After her presentation she answered students’ many questions about bats and about her work with them.

Throughout the year, members of the RL community take the stage in Rousmaniere Hall to share their experiences of faith, from a range of religious traditions—especially around the time of annual celebrations. The experience and exploration of spiritual life, in its rich variety of forms, has long been an important part of a Roxbury Latin education.

On April 14, Dr. Andrés Wilson, a member of the English Department, spoke to students and colleagues about his unconventional path to Judaism, his love of the religion’s rich history and traditions, and his understanding and celebration of the Passover holiday.

“I have viewed Passover from contrasting perspectives—as a non-Jew; studying Judaism from the outside in my late teens; as an Orthodox-Jewish convert and would-be rabbinical student in my late twenties, living the tradition while studying its more esoteric elements; and now, as a lapsed, spiritual-but-not-religious cultural Jew and father in my late thirties. I’m happy to share that journey, and what I’ve learned, with you all today.”

“Passover is a weeklong spring-time holiday that commemorates the mytho-historical flight of the Hebrews or Israelites—the nation that would become the Jews—from the slavery and tyranny of Pharoah in Egypt to freedom in Canaan. Essentially, Passover demands each of us in every generation to question what freedom means and what prevents us from achieving it.” 

Dr. Wilson walked students through the various “prescriptions and prohibitions” of celebrating the holiday, including eating matzah, or unleavened bread, and participating in ritual dinners called Seders, where those gathered read from the haggadah about the holiday’s lore and symbolism. “Seder means ‘order,’ and this little book provides the order and recipe for the rites of the evening. The most well-known Passover prohibition is the avoidance of certain grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats, and spelt) for the duration of the week, and this interdiction includes their possession as well as their consumption.”

“What was initially a public, national pilgrimage shifted to become a symbolic familial dinner, and now Passover transforms the family dinner table into the altar of the holy Temple, elevating each guest into a Temple priest… However, much spiritual preparation must occur before such transcendent work can take place. Families deep-clean their houses in the days or weeks leading up to it. In a practical sense, it’s spring cleaning; we are enjoined to remove every trace of chametz—leaven grain substances—from our homes. Metaphorically, however, chametz stands for the immaterial aspects of life that obstruct our spiritual strivings—such as materialism, or baseless hatred, or lust. While expunging chametz from my house, I like to reflect on my personal shortcomings: Which habits have narrowed my consciousness, making me a less present or compassionate father, teacher, or friend?”

Dr. Wilson, as he shared, was born into a culturally Christian, but wholly secular, family. “My father is an apathetic Irish-Catholic, and my mother—who had been a Black Panther in the seventies—is deeply spiritual but also suspicious of organized religion. I was fascinated by world religions, reading every book I could find on the topic and exploring every religion I could, including Buddhism, from which I learned the essential practice of meditation—a practice that I continue to this day. To be perfectly honest, much of my love for Judaism was sparked by a love for the Hebrew language… and a girl who spoke it.” (That girl went on to become his wife.)

“The Passover story asserts the essentiality of human freedom,” Dr. Wilson explained. “Spiritually, Passover forces us to take personal inventory of those deleterious mindsets and unnecessary aspects of our lives that hinder our transcendence. Today, I want to focus on three enduring themes of Passover that enlighten my own life: gratitude, questioning, and hopeful wonder.”

Gratitude
“Passover is fundamentally an exercise in giving thanks to God for the foremost miracle in Jewish history—the Exodus from Egypt… Judaism tethers almost every action to an offering of thanks. Observant Jews begin each day by reciting ‘Modeh Ani Lifnanecha…’ (‘Thanking am I before you…’), which is a practice that I continue to do even now. There’s a bracha or ‘blessing’ before and after eating snacks and meals, upon seeing lightning strike, upon seeing a rainbow, and there’s even a blessing that one makes after going to the bathroom. Jewish Law demands that we thank before we are, which results in a seeming negation of the very idea of ‘I’ and whittles away at the ego, leaving in its stead unwavering, objective appreciation. Existence is the only prerequisite for gratitude. We are thankful to God quite simply because we are.”

Questioning
“I’d like to underscore Passover’s—and, really, Judaism’s—insistence on questioning, on seeking but not necessarily finding answers. Unlike other religious traditions, Judaism stresses the primacy of action over faith, and action stems directly from seeking, studying, and questioning. Thus, a major aspect of the Passover Seder is to relate the story of Passover to our children, but not dogmatically. As a father, it is my responsibility to relate the mythic narrative to my own children, and I always do so in a spirit of debate and questioning in which ‘answers’ are not decisive, but rather are springboards for further questioning—an approach that I also bring to the classroom as a teacher. In life as in literature, the best answers are the best questions.”

Hopeful Wonder
“We conclude the seder by joyfully singing, ‘Bashanah haba’a b’yerushalayim habanuya,’ which translates to ‘Next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem.’ The seder concludes with the hope and aspiration of being in a rebuilt ‘City of Peace,’ with a rebuilt temple, in which Passover can truly be celebrated. It expresses the longing for a future utopia in a place in which peace flourishes, bondage has been eradicated, and no one is left hungry.”

“A Zen Buddhist saying cautions not to mistake the moon for the finger pointing to it. All too often I have witnessed Orthodox Jews and many other religious communities making this mistake, stressing dogma, political in-fighting, or faith-based litmus tests over the spiritual ends for which all traditions provide a roadmap. At its best, religion offers us a productive way by which we might channel our awe; it prompts us to be more grateful, and provides practices that transcend the ego. In my twenty years of celebrating Passover, I have found it to be one of Judaism’s most polyvalent and spiritually-productive holidays—a meditation on freedom, spring, and gratitude… I wish I could invite you all to our Passover Seder, but our dining room table is a bit too small. So I conclude with a spiritual charge for each of you, Jew or Gentile. In your own traditions, I challenge you to amplify the features and practices that make you act with more gratitude, compassion, and hopefulness.”

On January 20, Dr. Brian Purnell delivered one of two Halls that he will give this year, as Roxbury Latin’s 2021-2022 Smith Visiting Scholar. “Most of you will remember Dr. Purnell from his riveting and impassioned Zoom-Hall last February titled ‘The Fierce Urgency of Now’ which explored his personal journey with Civil Rights Movement history,” Headmaster Brennan introduced. “We were so enamored of Dr. Purnell and his work that we invited him to join us for an entire semester, as our Smith Scholar, to teach an elective titled History of the Civil Rights Movement. We are grateful that he took us up on our invitation. Those of you who will have him as your teacher this winter and spring can expect an enlightening and meaningful exploration.”

Dr. Purnell’s Hall address on Thursday was titled “Education of a Patriot,” and through it he described his own experiences of growing up in an immigrant, military family; how he always imagined he would go into military service—a dream defeated by his asthma; and how his education—discovering the power of studying, understanding, and then teaching history—changed that trajectory for him, as he imagined other ways in which he could proudly serve and support his country.

“I began college feeling lost,” Dr. Purnell shared. “I was not the person I had thought I would be, and I didn’t see a way to become him. I didn’t know what to do. I floundered academically. Midway through my first semester, I was failing one class and barely passing another. I improved, but my grades were mediocre. History saved me. When I took required history and literature courses, I signed up for anything that said, “American.” And I loved it. I could spend hours reading about the United States. I thrived in class discussions. In military history courses, I studied about common soldiers, people like my father and uncle: the shoeless, frostbitten militiamen at Valley Forge; the runaway slaves who served in the Union Army; the Marines who raised the flag at Iwo Jima; the grunts and POWs in Vietnam. In Native American history, I learned about the horrors of colonialism. In African American and women’s history courses, I learned about painful contradictions in my nation’s past, but also its powerful promise of liberty and equity. I began thinking that being an historian could be a way to be a patriot.”

“Being a patriot does not come from a uniform, or self-righteousness, or martyrdom,” he concluded. “Devotion to one’s country is not only, or even best, measured in what you give up, but what you invest in; it does not come from what we tear down, but what we build up. America has a lot of problems, but we can solve them if we learn from our past mistakes, and work toward our future with intelligence, patience, and care… Patriotism does not belong to one political party, or one type of person. It doesn’t come from a uniform or a gun or anger or yelling or saying who we are against. It comes from saying what we are for. I hope you will live your patriotism in ways that make sense to you, and in ways that build up our country into a place that is just, equitable, and good. America’s future depends on those kinds of patriots.”

Read the entirety of Dr. Purnell’s Hall address “Education of a Patriot.”

Dr. Purnell is the Geoffrey Canada Professor of Africana Studies and History at Bowdoin College. His courses focus on topics of U.S. history, Africana studies, and urban studies. A life-long New Yorker, Dr. Purnell has focused much of his research, teaching, and writing on race relations—as well as related laws and urban development—throughout the boroughs of New York City. He has also taught and written extensively, however, about the place of racism in both the North and the South throughout our country’s history. Dr. Purnell earned his undergraduate degree from Fordham University and both his master’s and PhD in history from New York University.

Fifteen years ago, the late Robert Smith—RL Class of 1958—and his wife, Salua, established the Robert P. Smith International Fellowship so that Roxbury Latin could bring visiting scholars to campus each year, enhancing our curricula with their insightful perspectives on our increasingly complex world. Over the years, these scholars have educated us on such topics as economic globalization in Africa; modernization in China, India, and the Middle East; Latin American literature; the legacy of World War I; climate change and its far-reaching effects; borders, both physical and philosophical; and, most-recently, the nuances of race and gender, with Dr. Zine Magubane, professor of sociology at Boston College. We are grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Smith for their generosity and for enabling our greater understanding of these critical global issues.