Class of 2026 Commencement: ‘Never Stop Learning’

The Commencement ceremony for the Colorado Academy Class of 2026 drew what seemed to be a record number of families and guests to the West Lawn of the historic Welborn House to celebrate 112 Seniors who were graduating on June 4, 2026.

 

As large as the audience of families and fans here to appreciate these students was, the graduating class’s impact upon the school community itself may have been even greater: Throughout the course of the event, every graduate would receive not just one, but two special tributes recognizing their individual contributions—one, by tradition, from Head of School Dr. Mike Davis, and a second, unique this year, by one of their classmates, elected Class Speaker Kit Freeman.

 

But first, there was the much-anticipated Processional, which saw the Seniors walk one-by-one through Welborn’s front doors and across its tree-shaded lawn, where they were met with cheers from proud, camera-wielding loved ones.

 

Once seated in the bright morning sun, the Front Range in the background, the graduates listened along with their families as the Chair of the Board of Trustees, Kevin Reidy, welcomed all to Commencement in what would be his final address as Chair.

 

“I am grateful for what Colorado Academy has represented over time for my family and for yours: A Colorado Academy education is not simply about achievement. It is about formation.”

Educating young people who know not only how to think and lead, but also how to navigate complexity with confidence and humanity, is more important than ever, Reidy said. 

“You are graduating into a world that is changing at an extraordinary speed. Technology will evolve. Entire industries will transform. Information will become even more abundant and even harder to trust. Many of the jobs you will eventually hold do not yet exist. Which means the most valuable skills you carry forward are not temporary technical skills alone, but durable human ones.”

Reidy went on to list some of the skills that will matter most for these graduates: communicating, thinking critically, leading with empathy, tolerating risk, and staying curious. Most important of all, added Reidy, is the ability to remain fully human in a world increasingly shaped by the disruption of artificial intelligence and global change.

“This durability,” he pointed out, “is what helps you endure, grow, and continue becoming who you are meant to be over decades—not just difficult moments. It does not mean perfect people; it means grounded people. People with character. People with purpose. People who can handle success without arrogance and adversity without losing themselves.”

“This is what Colorado Academy strives to develop in every graduate.”

 

Reidy then addressed the Class of 2026 directly.

“You are leaving this place at a moment of real momentum and optimism for Colorado Academy. For 120 years, this institution has continued to evolve while remaining true to its mission. This happened because generations of leaders, faculty, trustees, parents, and students were willing to ask hard questions, embrace change, and imagine what education could become—not simply preserve what it once was.”

Like CA, Reidy went on, “You have already accomplished a great deal. And yet, what matters most is not the list of schools you will attend, the awards you have won, or the titles you may someday hold. What matters most is the kind of person you will become.”

As Reidy finished congratulating the 2026 graduates and their families, Dr. Davis came to the front of the stage to deliver his own remarks. As in years past, he drew on his love of music to fashion a parting message to this year’s Seniors.

 

“Today, I want to talk to you about the song that provided the theme for my senior prom—‘Ramble On,’ by Led Zeppelin,” he began.

“In the spring of 1969, the year I was born, two young Englishmen named Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote a track for the second Led Zeppelin album. Three minutes and forty-five seconds long. An acoustic guitar that walks like a hiker. A bass line that won’t sit still. And a refrain you can hear from across a parking lot, and that rang out in concert stadiums in the 1970s.”

 

Dr. Davis pointed out critical lines from the song’s lyrics:

“Thanks to you, I’m much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But, know it’s time for me to go….”

These words, he said, are more or less what was happening on the Welborn Lawn at that moment: “You are saying thank you for a place that has been good to you. We are also saying thanks to you for raising up this community and each other.”

 

But there is more to the song’s message, he argued. 

“All the great performances, stunning academic achievements, and State Championships and other honors—that was the ‘pleasant stay.’ That was the gift CA gave you, and it was the gift you gave each other. However, I am not going to stand here and pretend your time here was only that. These were, in many ways, hard years—for our country, for the world, and for some of you personally in ways the rest of us never saw.”

The lesson that “Ramble On” offers, continued Dr. Davis, comes through in the perspective of its narrator, an exhausted traveler who is far from home. “It is a person with a worn-out pack and a long road ahead, insisting, anyway, that the journey is worth it, insisting that we all need to keep going, insisting, with a smile, I gotta ramble on.”

 

Joy, observed Dr. Davis, is not the absence of difficulty; nor is it the destination. “Joy is what you practice in the middle of difficulty. It is the choice to sing the chorus when the verse is heavy. To stand up after the story. To high-five the Kindergartner. To make the art anyway. To love each other on purpose, and out loud, in times that did not always make it easy.”

“Class of 2026—it is time you were on your way,” the Head of School concluded. “You are obliged, as the song says, to a place that loved you. You will be obliged, soon enough, to places that don’t know you yet. Be the kind of person who sings the chorus when the verse is heavy. Be curious. Be kind. Be courageous. Be adventurous. You know the words; you have been saying them since Pre-K. And when in doubt—ramble on.”

The music continued following Dr. Davis’s remarks, as the Upper School Chanteurs, led by Choral Music Director Dr. Kevin Padworski, assembled on stage to perform the song “Where the Light Begins,” by Susan Labarr.

Perhaps it does not begin.
Perhaps it is always.
Perhaps it takes a lifetime
to open our eyes, to learn to see
what has forever shimmered in front of us…
Perhaps this day
the light begins in us.

 

As the Chanteurs returned to their seats, all settled in to listen to words of wisdom from Upper School Principal Max Delgado, who was delivering his final Commencement address before he moves on from Colorado Academy. Again, the theme was music.

 

In his final days on campus, Delgado began, it was tempting to try to answer the question that he had dodged throughout his five years in the Upper School: What is your favorite part of your job?

“The answer might surprise you,” he said. “Now, I’m a trained English teacher, and I’ve spent almost as much time during my career in academic planning as in student life. But it isn’t when I’m teaching my favorite book or sitting in a budget meeting that I remember why I love schools. It’s watching you play music.”

Only a passable musician himself in his own high school days, Delgado related, his biggest challenges were sight reading and improvisation. Both were skills he never wanted to learn as a kid, but as an adult, he now understands their importance.

“The point of sight reading is not to play the music correctly; the point is responsiveness, the ability to encounter something unfamiliar and stay oriented long enough to make meaning from it. The discomfort is the instruction.”

“And then there’s improvisation,” Delgado continued, “which is often misunderstood as unlimited possibility. It’s actually built on something quite narrow: the study of constraint. Students will always learn to improvise within a tight musical structure. Great improvisers aren’t valued because they pluck from infinite options; they are valued because they make compelling choices within limited conditions and tight boxes.”

 

Like music, he went on, “Graduation is a season of expanse and possibility, of open fields and discovering what’s out there in all that tall grass. And that’s true and valuable. But throughout your time at CA your teachers have tried to offer you a quieter gift: limitation. When the discipline of constraint becomes genuinely internal, when it lives in you rather than being imposed on you, you'll find ways to flexibly be inside of it that will ironically make your life more expansive.”

“Class of 2026,” he concluded, “your future will include many conditions that you didn’t choose. But you are so well prepared for this. There will be times, Seniors, when you don’t know what to do. Your faculty wants you to know that there is a voice inside of you worth hearing. If we’ve tried to teach you anything over these last four years at CA, it’s discernment—how to know what to do when you don’t know what to do. It’s the kind of decision making that holds discovery and planning in balance, that understands structure as the thing that makes freedom possible.”

Freeman, elected Class Speaker, spoke next, saluting fellow Seniors as the ones who made possible her own growth as an individual.

 

“Over these past four years, and with some of you even more, I have become the sum of the 111 people surrounding me. I have learned something important from every single person on this stage today.”

Listing the names of every Senior classmate, Freeman described how some had impressed upon her the importance of being quick to respond when friends are in need; others had shown the value in offering ideas that could change perspectives. 

She named one group of classmates gifted with the energy to bring a roomful of people together, and another with the ability to dispense honest advice. A different group consistently created welcoming and inviting spaces, while another fearlessly pursued their passions. 

 

As Freeman named each and every member of the Class of 2026, every graduate heard their name and smiled with surprise, realizing that the impact they made on CA had been noted by one of their own.

“As we’re all moving forward into the next chapters of our lives,” Freeman said, “I urge you to learn something from everyone you meet. …There are a million things to learn, and a billion people to teach it to you.”

But, she added, that doesn’t mean forgetting where you’ve come from. “I’ll be carrying all the things I learned from each and every one of you forward alongside all that I’ve learned from everyone else in my life. I know that I still have so much to learn, but I know that I’m already so incredibly prepared to face any challenge that life might throw at me. So thank you all, for the lessons that you’ve taught me, the experiences we’ve had, and for the community that I know is going to last no matter where we all end up.”

 

With that, it was time for Dr. Davis to read individual student tributes and present diplomas to the graduates—from Griffin Adams to Emily Wu. And as they recessed back across the Welborn Lawn to celebrate and take a multitude of photos with family and friends, it is certain that many were still thinking of Freeman’s final words to the Class of 2026.

“Never stop learning, and never forget the people you learned from.”

 

Class of 2026 Commencement - Ceremony     Diploma Photos     Stage Portraits     Candids     Class of 2026 Formal Photo     Evening Reception     Commencement Rehearsal