From the Pillared Portals to a Brilliant World - Winchester Thurston ...

commencement 2011
Dayna Scott and Frederick Egler, two of the 2011
Commencement student speakers.
Legacy alumnus Andrew Pearlman and his family,
including parents Richard Pearlman and Mary
Pearlman.
David Curtis receives his WT diploma from his
mother, trustee Simin Yazgerdi Curtis.
Excerpts from Dr. Lear’s
Commencement Address
...“As students you are constantly being asked to choose a
path which then means choosing a college, a major, a career;
deciding what you want to ‘be.’ It’s all so early to even consider
those choices. As a society we are in a great and terrible rush to
the brink…Dare to be ‘late bloomers.’ Try different things, savor
different ways of thinking and different ways of living—enrich
your lives by being open to blooming in your own time and in
your own way.”
...“Choose a mentor in each segment of your lives. Rely on
them, and give that gift of encouragement to someone else who
might be on the cusp of faltering. Be a Mentor—Give Back.”
...“But even thoughtful risk-taking carries with it the
absolute certainty of failure. The only away to avoid failure is to
live so cautiously—so shallowly—that you might as well not live
at all: in which case you fail by default. If you are lucky, failure
teaches you that life goes on. And sometimes you’ll look back
on what you believed was a terrible failure only to discover it
was really a turning point in your life—a fabulous opportunity
to make different and even better choices.”
...“Because of WT‘s caring ethic, because of the quality and
the support of its superb faculty, I went on to college and several
Jonathan Holder with his
mother, trustee Diane
Holder.
Themba Searles (center) with his family. (Front
row, l to r): Zandile Matchaba, sister Laura Jean
Searles, stepmother Jennifer Christie-Searles,
great aunt Shirley Jean Cutwright. (Second row,
l to r): grandmother Arthur Jean Searles, mother
Sharon Mohale, father and WT trustee John
Christie-Searles, John White. (Rear): brother Gabe
Searles A’09.
graduate schools open to the possibility of discovering what
I loved; prepared to risk failure and to try again.”
...“Seeds and blooming require tending and a guiding sun.
We do not walk our paths in isolation, but finding wise
companions at each stage to share that walk is vital. Most
successful people—be they doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs and
even biographers—can point to at least one mentor who changed
the course of their journey.”
Gary Niels and trustee Woody Ostrow congratulate
Ostrow’s daughter Molly.
Sally Loevner with her parents, India and trustee
Steve.
Zoe Silberblatt with her grandparents, Al and
Gloria Bodek (right), and her parents, Lori Sisson
and Jay Silberblatt (left).
6 T h i s t l e t a l k S u m m e r / F a l l 2 0 1 1