By Dr. John Stegeman, Head of Upper School

Eastside Preparatory School’s graduation ceremony for the Class of 2025 was celebrated on June 13 at Bellevue’s Hilton Hotel with seniors, families, faculty, and staff in attendance. What follows are excerpts from speeches given during the ceremony.

MEHRANE MOKDAD, PRESIDENT, BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Today, we celebrate the extraordinary Class of 2025. It is no secret that this class holds a special place in my heart. As a parent of one of the graduates, I’ve had the unique joy of watching this group grow into remarkable young people.

I’m filled with immense pride—not just for your achievements, but for the way you’ve lifted each other up along the way. I’ve witnessed your resilience, your unwavering friendships, and your determination to face challenges together. The way you support one another has truly inspired me. You lean on each other, stand by one another, and celebrate each other’s victories as if they’re your own. And it’s this spirit of strength and resilience that I want to talk about today.

Before you step beyond the walls of EPS, I want to remind you of some lifelong companions. Friends who’ve been with you since your very first wobbly step as a toddler, all the way to your polished stride across this stage today. Those companions are called mistakes. Yes, mistakes. Often maligned and misunderstood, yet they’re your greatest allies. Mistakes show you truths that success never can. Success feels good, but it doesn’t ask you to grow…or dig deep…mistakes do. They teach you resilience, courage, and humility. Mistakes aren’t failures; they’re the architects of wisdom, the builders of character, and the mentors of resilience.

Life, dear graduates, is like a beautiful hike. Along the way, you’ll encounter stunning vistas that take your breath away. You’ll also face steep climbs, rocky paths, and unexpected storms. You’ll stumble. You may fall. And yes, sometimes it’ll hurt.

I leave you with four guiding principles to carry with you:
• Fail Well. Don’t fear mistakes—embrace them. Don’t fear struggles—overcome them. They’re where the best learning happens.
• Be Curious. Seek the beauty in the unknown. Ask questions. Chase answers.
• Show Kindness. To the people around you, to the world, to nature—but most importantly, to yourself.
• Call Home. Your family needs to hear your voice. No matter how far you go, you’ll always have a home here.

DR. JOHN STEGEMAN, HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL

One of my favorite things about school is that we all get to have a shared experience, together. At the same time, we are crafting our own experiences, individually. We learn about the world and how we fit into it, at the same time we are learning about ourselves and how we tick. My graduation wish for you, Class of 2025, is that the learning you’ve done during your time at EPS is like a chapter in the book of your lives. That the learning you’ve done here primes and nourishes the learning you’ll do later. There’s a lot to learn about the world, about yourselves, and about the lives you live. We’ve given you a foundation, but you’ll need to keep building.

All of you will continue to learn and grow and change. The ways you learn, and the things you learn, will vary from person to person and will vary for you over time. We often use the phrase “well-rounded” to reference this variety. In fact, when college preparatory curriculum was standardized, it was designed to cover the basics in a lot of different areas. To succeed in high school, you have to do a lot of things well, and because of this structure, we seem to highlight well-roundedness. This isn’t bad, but this expectation is contrived. It’s been placed upon you, and you’re not beholden to it. The danger is that you start to feel like you’re always being pushed in a direction that doesn’t feel authentic.

So in this moment, I release you from this burden. You don’t have to be all things to all people. You’re great just as you are. In fact, let’s celebrate the edges that make you unique. I don’t think we’ve given you enough credit and praise for those in your time here. And now that you’re leaving, there will be more pressure out there in the world to conform. Resist those forces. The edges and the angles are already inside of you. Hopefully, your time at EPS has helped you identify some of them. Hopefully, you will discover more as you leave this place.

Now don’t forget, you still have to live in the world, with other people. Celebrating your edges doesn’t release you from the need to treat others with kindness, to listen and consider perspectives other than your own, to do your best to not hurt people, and when you do, to repair. The world needs you to show up with all of those skills and attitudes. Just don’t let the world grind you down in the process.

ADDIE LANGWORTHY, STUDENT SPEAKER

Thank you to the family and friends who have supported us since our very first steps. Thank you to the faculty and staff who have challenged us these past years to grow. It is a great privilege to be a part of this community that does not tell us one correct answer, but asks us: what answers can you find? Through this inquisitive approach, I have observed the Class of 2025 grow and strengthen. It is jaw-dropping to consider the collective feats of this class, from dissecting quantum mechanics and the intricacies of art; from microbiology to unraveling complex international relations. We have created solar panels, murals, marine technology, and so much more. It has been a wonderful journey exploring this community of intelligent, kind, and passionate people.

I know every student here has the passion and grit to accomplish whatever we set our minds to, and I hope that we also step back, and take time to explore and open our minds. Success is more than reaching our objective. Success is enjoying the journey, the company you share it with, and the joy you give to others along the way.

There is a quote that encapsulates a magical perspective on life. Sylvia Plath once said, “I can never read all the books I want; // I can never be all the people I want // and live all the lives I want. // I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life.” It is my goal, and I hope everyone joins with me, to take these next four years and attempt to dive into new environments, communities, worlds.

DYLAN WU, STUDENT SPEAKER

Thanks to the care of our friends, families, and our amazing faculty here at Eastside Prep—we can stand here and say we have finally made it. Commencement is a sesquipedalian word—a fancy way of saying something simple: to start. And we witness all sorts of commencements every day. But today is a different kind of commencement. It’s a beginning braided with an ending. Because even when we step forward into the new era in our lives as we scatter across the country and beyond, we’re closing the chapter on something beautiful. Whether you’re a Lifer who’s been here all eight years or someone who joined midway through high school, this class—this EPS community, this culture of trust, collaboration, and innovation—has left its mark.

I want to share what has been my biggest takeaway from my time at EPS. What EPS has taught me, more than anything, is to follow your passion and create impact. Thank you—to the classmates who challenged me, the teachers who believed in me, and the community that made space for curiosity, collaboration, and a little chaos. What we shared here doesn’t vanish; it threads itself into the way we think, create, and show up for the people around us.

There’s a saying from Chinese poet Wang Bo that I carry with me:
海内存知己，天涯若比邻
(Hǎi nèi cún zhī jǐ, tiān yá ruò bǐ lín)
A true friend is a treasure; even if far apart, we feel close as neighbors.

As we go our separate ways, may we keep that closeness alive—not just through memory, but through the innovation, creativity, and passion we continue to bring into the world.

SAM UZWACK, HEAD OF SCHOOL

As you stand on the precipice of your next great adventure, I am thrilled about what lies ahead for you, and I hope you are a little bit nervous. New classmates, new campuses, new cities, new programs, new requirements. It will be tempting to keep your gaze fixed on “the next step” and the step after that, and the step after that. There is a pervasive myth that progress is merely linear. You do A, then B, then C, then D, in that order, in a perfect linear progression, and life is amazing. However, if rather than seeking an orderly progression, we search for the twists and turns of new experience, we can become ever more comfortable with ambiguity.

From the late 18th to the mid-19th century, the Romantic Period was a significant artistic and intellectual movement that flourished in Europe and America. My favorite poet of that time is Lord Byron, and my favorite poem is entitled “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” or, more commonly, “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods.” Here is an excerpt:

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more …

A pleasure in the pathless woods. He’s imploring us to wander, to wonder, to choose the road less traveled. And yet, something is missing. The Romantics focused mightily on individualism. These are qualities I relate to and find, well, romantic. Independence. Self-reliance. Adventure. Yet, over the years, I have come to realize that what we accomplish, we do not do alone. We always have help. We are always part of a community. While the pathless woods absolutely resonate with me, I’d like to add a corollary.

To do this, allow me to introduce Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp. After graduating from Emory University, he gave away all his belongings and hit the road. For two years, Chris crisscrossed the country while pursuing his ultimate dream…to live in the wilds of Alaska. I’m not going to explore the particulars of the final fate of Alexander Supertramp; rather, I want to focus on what he learned, out there, amongst the spruce, alone. His great epiphany. In his journal, he scrawled, “Happiness only real when shared.”

You have all distinguished yourselves at EPS. As you journey to your next adventure, I hope you’ll hold two ideas together in your hearts and minds. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods. And, happiness is only real when shared.