Would Yuwei Xie ’11 please stand? Yuwei is one of our Class of 1963 Scholars here at Trinity. She hails from Shanghai. Her GPA is utterly remarkable. She brightens every corner of the College that she touches. She is another of the reasons our work on behalf of Trinity matters.

Would Dilian Kovachev please stand? Dilian came to Trinity from Bulgaria and was the Valedictorian for the Class of 2006. His dedication to, and love for, Trinity are unswerving, so much so that he is on campus every day, having been married this August in the rose garden of the Chapel to a Trinity alumna. Dilian is another of the reasons.

Finally, would Kushal Purie ’12 please stand? Kushal is one of the 15 students now studying on campus from Nepal. Earlier this week, Kushal and Dilian were having lunch together in Mather, having become fast friends on our annual Quest wilderness experience in Canada this past August. What a picture the two of them made in Mather that noon. Kushal told me that day that he is going to be, like Dilian, the valedictorian of his class as well!

Look at these remarkable students. They were you, Trustees, Board of Fellows members, National Alumni Association Executive Board members, the blink of an eye ago, walking on the same Long Walk, gazing up at the same Bishop, listening to the peals of the same carillon from the same Chapel Tower, having your own lives transformed by the faculty and staff of the College. And who knows who and what they will become? Which one of them is a future Paul Raether [’68, P’93, ’96, ’01, chair of the Board of Trustees] or a future Penny Sanchez [’77, president of the National Alumni Association] or a future Cheryl Greenberg [Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of History]?

I do not know the answer to that question, but of one thing I am abundantly certain: the College will one day soon be as proud of each of them as we are of all of you who give so unselfishly of your time, your energy, your means, and, yes, your love for this place. They and their peer students are the reasons Trinity matters so very, very much, and why our work must move forward. And move forward we shall.

When the trustees voted in the mid 1870s to move the campus to this site, the phrase cited in the minutes was “sacredly kept.” “Sacredly kept.” What better thing to love than a school, sacredly kept? Nothing else should be our common calling for this most uncommon place. And yes, the shades of all the greats who have been here before us are surely smiling upon all of us tonight.

James F. Jones, Jr.
President and Trinity College
Professor in the Humanities

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