A Salute to the Graduating Class of 2008
You stand at a transformative moment in time.
With one eye, you behold a limited and unalterable past; years filled with memories, friendships, and accomplishments. While with a second eye, you gaze into an unbounded and unshaped future; decades ripe with promise, awash with hope, and awaiting your creative spirit.
You stand at a transformative moment in time.
As you go forth from our humble campus, you leave a grateful community in which you have dared to adopt the challenge of excellence, to now embrace an unlimited and undefined future which beckons you to dream.
Dare to dream large, ladies, as it is those dreams that will become the reality of tomorrow.
You stand at a transformative moment in time.
In accordance with our Mission Statement, you now go forth to assume the leadership roles of your new world. However, perhaps more than you may now realize, you have unquestionably shaped both the present and the future of the Linden Hall that you leave behind.
When a 300th anniversary chronicle of our school is written, and such a text will be authored, your place in that long and distinguished history will be unmistakable.
You will forever be immortalized as the senior class who ushered in a new age at Linden Hall. While our many remarkable firsts and record highs this year are the pride of our entire community -- and there is much credit to be shared -- I sincerely thank you, the Class of 2008, for the considerable contribution you have made to our exceptional future.
Your willingness to embrace change and to accept the new challenge and rigor of the recent past, positions you not only as arguably the best-prepared class of graduates from Linden Hall, but your achievement of the highest SAT scores in the history of our school has set an example to all about what young people can truly accomplish, how breathtakingly high they can truly soar.
By accelerating the ascent of our academic program toward the elite of the all girls’ boarding schools in the United States and to the top of Lancaster County, you have sent a clear signal to families, both local and from around the world, about the wonder that is Linden Hall. Through your unparalleled success, you have signaled to an independent school world that this tiny school in Lititz is a major player on the world’s educational stage.
And let me assure you that that fresh and unmistakable signal from the Class of 2008 was instrumental in the recent accomplishments that have transformed our school.
Ladies…Mission accomplished!
So as you, the graduating Class of 2008, go forth, prepared and poised to shape the future of our planet and our civilization, please know that you have already helped to achieve a transformation in Linden Hall.
And it is with the most profound and sincere sense of gratitude, that we, your teachers, your coaches and your administrators, thank you for the leadership you have shown here, and encourage you to transform, in an equally noteworthy way, the new, global community into which you now so confidently stride.
Linden Hall graduates of the Class of 2008,
Go forth secure in the knowledge that you are well-prepared to mold an astonishing world future, one currently undreamt by your faculty and your parents.
Go forth armed with the strength of conviction that doing what is best may not always be easy or popular.
Go forth with the intention to transform your next world as you have helped to transform Linden Hall.
Go forth with the belief that the lofty goal of excellence is both noble and achievable.
Go forth with the resolve to boldly confront the many who will mistakenly insist that mediocrity is good enough.
Go forth to confidently lead a world so desperately in need of your inspired leadership.
And most importantly,
Go forth with the boundless blessings of a benevolent God, the unbridled pride of a grateful school, and the timeless assurance of a loving Linden Hall, that here, you will always have a home.