A busy academic year marked by hard work, achievements, creativity, community and school spirit culminated in a joyful evening of celebration on Tuesday, May 21 at the 15^th King’s Academy Commencement, held under the patronage of His Majesty King Abdullah II.

The sun shined brightly as throngs of excited parents, family and friends of the graduates filled up the rows of chairs on Commencement Lawn, and faculty donned their ceremonial robes before taking their places for the procession led by the royal bagpipers. As the crowd eagerly awaited the first glimpse of the Class of 2024, King’s students in grades 9 to 11 lined up on either side of Commencement Walk ready to cheer the seniors on.

Head of School Penny Townsend began her welcome address with words of thanks to those assembled. Addressing the 118 seniors, she told them to “be proud of your many achievements and talents, your warm and generous spirit, and, in this difficult year, your resilience and determination. The calamities of this year and the grief and sadness that accompanied them have preoccupied all of us, but today is a day of celebration and, finally, a day of hope.”  

Speaking about the benefits of being multilingual and multicultural, important tenets of the school, she recalled the words of her own commencement speaker, Pierre Salinger, who said: “To have a second language is to have a second soul.”

“I look out at a class in which every student speaks at least two languages, some three or more,” Mrs. Townsend continued. “To command a second, third, or even a fourth language is to empower yourself as both a learner and a communicator, and all solutions to the challenges of this world must begin with education and communication.”

Encouraging the graduates to be hopeful, Mrs. Townsend asked them to look to the school’s founder, His Majesty King Abdullah II. “His Majesty stands tall as a man of reason in a troubled world, as a man of peace in a world rife with conflict, and as a man of compassion and humanity in a world desperately needing both. His Majesty advocates tirelessly for education and is a powerful communicator on the world stage. Celebrate his voice and spread his message. His Majesty gives us reason to hope.”

Concluding her address, Mrs. Townsend said to the Class of 2024: “Find hope and inspiration in yourselves and in one another. Look at what you have done and who you have become in your young lives. Find hope in your formidable talents, your courage, your unwillingness to entertain defeat, and your principled approach to world citizenship. Find hope in your determination to erase injustice and ease suffering. You give us all hope.”

In her Arabic Oration, Roaa AlHasanat ’24 spoke of how much she and her classmates had learned and gained over the past four “magnificent” years.

“Each day our dreams grew, our perceptions broadened, and the future blossomed before our eyes,” she said. “At King's Academy, we learned the essence of good citizenship and the meaning of true belonging. Most importantly, we discovered how to love this great, kind and generous homeland. We learned how to be a beautiful chapter in the story of its development, prosperity and great growth.”

Commenting on her identity as a Jordanian from the south of the country, AlHasanat said “I did not only bring documents in my bag when I came to school, but I also brought my personality, customs, culture, and the beautiful legacies of my family and community, and I planted them here in the school campus garden, alongside the fresh flowers of my classmates, each bringing the blossoms of their culture and the essence of their beautiful countries.”

Next up to the podium for her English Oration was Ward Abu Ali ’24. “What makes King’s exceptional is the people,” she said. “At King’s, we are taught that the greatest crime is to stay silent. We are taught to refuse to be the children of the forgotten. We will carry what we learned here our entire lives — not only what we studied but also how to be part of a caring community.”

Describing how the Class of 2024 is infused into the very heart of the school, Abu Ali said: “We are in every stone in the class mosaics, we are in the drawings hung up in the hallways, we are in the names carved on the Harkness tables. Most importantly, our memories are all engraved in each other's hearts.”

Mrs. Townsend then presented the two most prestigious awards given during Commencement: The Academy Cup, which was awarded to Faris Doughan ’24 for being a “leading scholar whose academic work has been characterized by deep scholarship, curiosity, and a love of learning,” and the King Abdullah II Award, which went to Rand Tadros ’24 for “fully embodying the ethos, spirit and guiding principles of the Academy.”

Next to take the floor to give the Commencement Address was Tamam Mango, CEO of the Crown Prince Foundation, member of the King’s Academy Board of Trustees, and parent of a King’s Academy student.

Mango started by sharing a quote by His Majesty King Abdullah II on the importance of hard work, perseverance, hope, ambition and service. Noting how His Majesty’s quote perfectly described the meaning of service as a way of life, she gave examples of ways people in Jordan are serving their communities: “From opening our borders to our Arab brothers and sisters at their most dire moment, to delivering humanitarian aid, to building a startup, to keeping our streets clear of litter, to cleaning up the beaches of Aqaba, to taking the risk of learning something new in AI. Service that saves lives. Service that matters. Service as duty. Service as commitment.”

Encouraging the Class of 2024 to “follow your dreams, change the world, and never give up,” Mango concluded her address by asking the graduates to “smile as you continue to learn and grow and build and serve. Knowing that as you do these things you will make mistakes. Embrace them, reflect on them, Google search them, improve yourself and guide others, be generous to your community.”

“Part of King’s mission is to create learners who cherish one another. Keep that with you as part of your identity of service as you venture into the world as a King’s Academy alumni.”

This year’s graduates are off to some of the most reputable colleges and universities around the world, including Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, King's College London, The University of Edinburgh, University of Amsterdam, University of Chicago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, University of Nottingham, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Toronto.

In addition to receiving a wide range of acceptances from top institutions, seniors also earned an impressive amount of financial aid awards and scholarships, totaling around US $4.6 million to be used during their four-year matriculations.