As the end of the academic year approaches, the board has shared what the 2020 Commencement and Baccalaureate schedule will look like. The ceremony has been split over two days, with the Baccalaureate performance held on Thursday, May 28th at 8:00 p.m. EDT and the Commencement held on Friday, May 29th at 10 a.m. EDT.
The specifics of each event are detailed on Concord Academy’s website, which states,
“Commencement at Concord Academy marks the end of the academic year and the celebration of the senior class with faculty, staff, families, and friends. This year’s Commencement events will include a virtual Baccalaureate Performance, during which graduating seniors will share music and stories with their classmates and families; a virtual morning breakfast with Head of School Rick Hardy, and virtual Commencement exercises.”
The Commencement speaker this year is Ambassador Samantha Power, who is currently the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the William D. Zabel Professor of Practice in Human Rights at Harvard Law School. She served on the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights from 2009-2013. In addition, she was the 28th U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, as well as a member of President Obama’s cabinet from 2013-2017. Power is also an award-winning and best-selling author, and her works such as “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide” have won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
Finally, attendance to the virtual Commencement is mandatory for all students. As stated on CA’s website, “We will record the Baccalaureate performance on Thursday evening. While we plan to record some portions of our Commencement, we will be unable to record the Commencement speaker. Those recordings will be available to students and parents.” The CA community looks forward to these events as one final opportunity to come together with the graduating class!