Baccalaureate will take place tonight, June 8, at 6:00 pm in the Langstaff Auditorium; a livestream is available. (Tickets are limited, and only guests of graduates may attend.) Commencement will be tomorrow, June 9, on the Tundra Field, at 10:00 am; a livestream option is available. All are welcome. Please refer to this previously shared document for a complete schedule and answers to frequently asked questions about the various events. If you have further questions, please reach out to Tory Virchow or Robert von Glahn, who are the graduation co-coordinators.

This week, the Class of 2023 completed and presented their senior projects. The students worked on these during the month of May, sharing their progress in small groups once a week. At the conclusion of their projects, all of our graduates shared their work with their peers and faculty, effectively communicating what they learned, the challenges they overcame, and their hopes for future endeavors in presentations earlier this week. Ella Adamec, Alex DeCamp, Sienna Staver, and the team of Aidan Cullinan and Keyana McLennon, were selected to present at this year's Senior Project Showcase. Their projects included internships at the Washington Post, EEOC, and Head Start, and a pottery project that incorporated teaching Upper School faculty to create their own mugs on the potter's wheel. Additionally, the Upper School walked into the assembly to selections from Ben Schirmeier's band, All My Friends, who recorded an EP as part of his project and ended the assembly with a viewing of Andrew Lay's film documenting the Class of 2023.

The Class of 2023 is an accomplished, creative, and hard-working group. Their diversity of skills and interests was reflected in their projects and included rebuilding vintage MGs, writing, filing, and editing films, designing and constructing a new outdoor classroom for Potomac, writing and recording a full-length musical, researching and writing a guide for the use of AI in education, completing a variety of art projects, coaching, teaching, and mentoring younger students and athletes, and interning with our advancement office, farmers, a physical therapist, defense contractors, museums, journalists, and even at a butcher shop. Great job, class of 2023! You have so much to offer.

On June 6, senior Leo Marin performed a culminating exercise as part of Potomac’s Visual and Performing Arts Concentration. The purpose of the exercise is to allow seniors to synthesize and express as much of what they have learned over their time in the US theater program as they can in one single production. The showcase was performed, designed, and directed entirely by Leo and involved collaborators from the classes of ‘23 (Ella Adamec, Olee Banerjee, and Peyton Zarate), ‘24 (Elisa Germanis and Jack Morgan), and ‘25 (Noah Hess, Hugh Kanner-Bitetti, and Tucker Robbins). Leo and his cast-mates successfully tackled some challenging material, creating a compelling and creative performance. Congratulations to all involved!

Drumroll, please! The 2023-24 Potomac Upper School Theatre lineup is sure to take audiences on an emotional rollercoaster with stories of friendship, family, dreams, and activism.

Fall Musical: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, November 3-4, 2023, EPAC (November 3 will be a special performance in conjunction with Friday Night Lights.)

Winter Play: Steel Magnolias, January 5-6, 2024, Virginia Thespian Festival at Capital One Center, Arena Theatre; February 23-24, 2024, EPAC

Spring Musical: Hairspray, May 18-19, 2024, EPAC