A Message from Steve Hancock: Spring/Summer 2023-24

Dear USM Family,

Each year, summer offers a relaxed pace for our year-round staff, with time to reflect on the previous school year and finalize plans for the new one ahead. For our faculty, summer offers a crucial opportunity to unwind and recharge, whether spending time with family and friends, enjoying hobbies, traveling, and more. But many of our teachers continue to engage with USM in one way or another, be it writing and developing curriculum, tutoring, teaching Upper School Summer Institute courses or for our Summer I.D.E.A.S. program, or finding time for professional development opportunities. This summer, some of our dedicated teachers are visiting places like Australia, Luxembourg, and Iceland as they develop new partnerships and unique curricula, showcasing their commitment to our school’s growth and innovation. These opportunities, as well as many others closer to home, are made possible thanks to the school’s Think Big Fund—an endowed donor gift allowing our teachers to pursue a wide variety of challenging, invigorating, and transformational professional development opportunities.

Of course, summer did not officially begin until the completion of our Commencement exercises, held this year on Friday, June 7. Graduates–along with their families and friends, and our faculty and staff–enjoyed a beautiful evening outdoors in Don Forti Stadium, where this year’s featured speaker, Tom Florsheim ’76 helped celebrate our 93 graduates. The Class of 2024 will be matriculating at some of the top liberal arts colleges and public and private universities in the world. It is a personal point of pride for me that our College Guidance office has such tremendous success in helping our students find their best-fit colleges. You can view this year’s list of schools at usm.org/matriculation.

Speaking of graduates, a rainy weekend at the end of June did not keep our alumni away from Reunion Weekend 2025. USM welcomed more than 350 alumni and parents of alumni, with 23 unique reunion years represented at our Summer Soirée cocktail party, including the Class of 1974, celebrating its 50th reunion! I enjoyed reminiscing with alumni from 1958 to 2022 at all of the weekend’s wonderful events, including special off-campus events for alumni from our 4s and 9s classes celebrating milestone reunions. If you are an alum who has not recently (or never!) attended one of your milestone reunions, I strongly encourage you to make plans to do so. I would love to meet you, and I’m sure your former classmates would love to see you!

Steve Hancock
Head of School