Grace Alum Chosen As 2020 Graduation Speaker
Recently, it was revealed to the Grace community that Rebecca Naomi Jones ‘95 will be the 2020 Graduation Speaker. In an interview, Mr. Davison, Head of School, shared that “[Rebecca] has been officially confirmed since August, but I was waiting for the right moment to announce it.” Rebecca, who will be the second alum to give the address at commencement, graduated from the Grace Middle School in 1995 as a member of Mr. Davison’s first class as Head of School. “I prefer that the speaker is related to the school in some way so that we’re not paying someone to come in, which some schools do,” continued Mr. Davison. He also reflected that having Rebecca as the speaker at the 5th High School commencement has a lot of nice number alliteration, “along with 125 years for the whole school, it has been 25 years [since she graduated], so it’s a nice number, and all her classmates will be coming back for a big reunion this year.”
Rebecca is currently starring in the Broadway musical Oklahoma as Laurey Williams. She has also been involved in the productions of Murder Ballad, Passing Strange, American Idiot, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. When asked if, as a student at Grace, Rebecca could have ever imagined being the Graduation Speaker, she replied with, “Absolutely not!”
From her three years at Grace, Rebecca has many fond memories. She shared that, “a major highlight for me was Mr. Keating’s English class. I loved that we began sessions ‘free writing’ in our notebooks, allowing us a few minutes of quiet introspection. But while I enjoyed working in a classroom setting, I’d have to say my favorite part of being at Grace was being in the plays!”
Graduation will be on May 22nd, 2020, at 10 am.