June, 2020
Dear Ramsey Graduate,
Congratulations on your graduation from Ramsey High School! You have completed this stage of your education at a school known for academic achievement and personal development, and you join an alumni club that also includes William S. McFeely, Caroline Pennell, Mike Laga, and Richard W. DeKorte. (School’s not over yet, so look them up!) I hope to include YOUR name in a letter to future grads, so get out there and make your mark.
You have already made history, although it’s not the way any of us envisioned it. Someday, you’ll be able to tell a grand tale of staying home for an unfathomable amount of time, restricted to seeing teachers and friends from afar or on a screen. This will become your “two miles uphill both ways with no shoes” legacy! Someday, you’ll be able to reflect on what you learned about yourself and others during this peculiar time. Someday, you’ll appreciate how much of the world took responsibility through sacrifice to protect the most vulnerable among us. Today, though, I’ll bet your focus is on a smaller picture: all those rites of passage for high school seniors that got shunted or shelved, the fervent wish that everything could just snap back to normal, and some pretty daunting questions about the future.
You grew up as the term “going viral” became part of our internet-driven lexicon; now you’ve seen why that analogy is so apt. From geometry or statistics, you were schooled to understand what “flatten the curve” means; this spring you learned how the concept can be applied to life. You heard talk of the Profile of a Ramsey Graduate, which nurtured traits including collaboration and adaptability, and you wrapped up your senior year employing those every single day. You have been well prepared to rise to this challenge with creativity and composure, and you are stronger for having gone through it.
I wish you happiness and success as you move toward the next stage. Stay in touch so we can share news of YOUR achievements in a future letter to Proud Ramsey Graduates.
Best of luck as you move forward,
Matthew J. Murphy, Ed. D.
Superintendent of Schools
Ramsey Public Schools
