New Year, New Assembly

Head of School Kolia O’Connor welcomed the community back to school after having some time off for winter break. He talked about various cultures new year's traditions and how each culture celebrates on a different day of the calendar year. For example, the Chinese New Year is celebrated on January 28, while the Jewish and Islamic New Year is celebrated on September 21. “Each calendar is a human-made artifact, a way of organizing time. Calendars reflect the impact and importance of the cultures and histories of the people who develop them,” he said. “I make this point because people are amazing story-tellers. We tell stories to make sense of the world and organize our experiences. This year, each of us is writing our own story, and our stories intersect with the stories of others: our parents and siblings, our classmates, and our teachers. Together we are creating the stories of our lives and more specifically of this school year.”

“As we use New Year’s as a moment to reflect on our lives, I encourage each of us to make positive and constructive choices, to write stories for ourselves that will help us grow as people and as a community,” Mr. O’Connor continued in his opening remarks. “If each of us will bring our best selves to the stories we are creating, when our stories intersect with the stories of others, it will be something amazing to behold.”

Representatives from each division reflected on what the New Year meant to them personally and how to be the best version of oneself. Grade 5 students Sofya Donets and Will Manning spoke about kindness and how to be kind to one another; Grade 8 students Prateek Adurty and Victoria Keller discussed community and how to develop a respectful one; and seniors Ryan Brown and Millen Schuchert encouraged students, faculty, and staff to support one another on a daily basis.

Student Council President Ryan Brown challenged the Academy community. “Think of this assembly as celebrating the fact that we’re halfway home. For the second half of the school year, when you get the chance, reach out to someone, a classmate, a relative, a neighbor, who you’ve ignored in the past, and make them feel welcome. Make them feel wanted. There’s no greater feeling on earth.”

Senior Class President Millen Schuchert talked about acceptance and love. “We are all different in many ways, so it’s important to support each other and put love first. At Sewickley Academy, we need to accept each other, put our arms around each other, and … instead of trashing people, show our love.” Millen said. “Let’s have a bonded community here at SA. And it starts with the people. Let’s create a loving community here.”

After student presentations, the Senior School Chorus sang “Can’t Buy Me Love,” followed by an all-school sing-a-long to the Academy’s Fight Song.