Good afternoon

Good afternoon, RVA – staff, faculty, families, students, and students-no-longer.

The first thing I want to do is thank you, not just for being here tonight, but for being here every year until now. Teachers, faculty, and families: thank you for your tireless support and constant efforts – helping with homework, answering questions, being there for us, rain or shine. Students and classmates: thank you for making classes feel like clubs, reaching out to offer help, and filling my quote book to the brim. Many fond memories were made in RVA classrooms.

At first, I wasn’t going to bother trying to be one of our graduation speakers, given that I’ve only been at the RVA for two years. However, I’ve been told that this may be the very thing that gives my thoughts such weight. Until I joined in my junior year, I’d spent my life in private schools. I’d been taught that rules and grades matter above all else, and that life came second to school. Even when I saw the phrase “Relationships, Values, Academics”, I didn’t truly believe it. How could an institution function that way? It seemed too good to be true.

But looking around, I began to understand. I saw students and teachers bantering throughout class, laughing at anything they could, making memories that span far beyond grades. As an inside joke, I was even sent an autographed Kleenex by a certain Mr. Noah Sackmann, which hangs on my wall to this day and for the foreseeable future. It’s those kinds of memories that I plan to take with me and will always look back on with a smile.

Along with the memories, one thing I’ll take with me from the RVA is the importance of seeing the humanity in those around us. No one here needs me to tell them that ours is a divided nation. Sometimes it feels impossible to escape the reach of politics, even and especially in schools. I was both surprised and refreshed to find that the RVA neither tolerates that kind of division amongst students nor enables it to exist in the first place. Rather, they encourage mutual respect regardless of perspective, as well as informed citizenship. In particular, I was very impressed with Mr. Phillips’s U.S. Government course and how it was taught so objectively. In a world full of uncertainty, it’s been comforting to have people to fall back on. In that sense, too, the RVA has been an anchor in the storm. Students learn to become well-rounded people of empathy and wisdom, prioritizing what truly matters.

All this to say, the RVA, for as short a time as I’ve been here, has been an unforgettable experience full of equally unforgettable people. When this class goes out into the world, I hope we’ll be a force for good and use our relationships, values, and academics – yes, in that order – to make the world a better place.

One last time – to our staff, faculty, families, students, and our students-no-longer: thank you from the bottom of my heart. — Afton Mueller, RVA Class of 2025.

Afton Mueller is from Fountain City and became an RVA student in her junior year.