Gov. Shumlin Encourages Miss Porter's 'Ancients' to Seize Opportunity, Address Climate Change

Saturday was a special opportunity for Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, not only as a governor addressing the Miss Porter's School Class of 2013, but also as an uncle watching his niece, Julia Shumlin graduate in Farmington.

"I know that you are as proud as I am of this class of 2013 and I cant' tell you how honored I am that my niece had the courage to ask me to do this," Shumlin said, speaking of the strong connection he felt to the graduating class.

Student Head of School Helen (Daly) Arnett wrote her speech expecting rain at graduation, which she said was fitting considering how many storms, including Hurricane Sandy, have threatened staple Miss Porter's traditions for the Class of 2013. For once, they had sunshine.

"We didn't always dance in the rain, but that's almost what I see as so special about our grade," Arnett said, as shown in the video of the graduation on the school's website. "We didn't dance in the rain, but we figured out how to go on. We always found our own way to fight and weather the storm."

Following the student speakers, Gov. Shumlin joked, "I don't know what's wrong with your governor here in Connecticut, but I can tell you one thing about this Vermont governor. We veto rain on graduation days."

According to Arnett, columnist Joel Stein recently wrote in Time Magazine that the youngest generation, the Millenials, is made up of people that are "lazy," "entitled," "selfish," "shallow," yet "compassionate," "diverse" and "accepting," calling them "pragmatic idealists." She quipped that in response her class would have written a letter of contempt but that they are busy watching new episodes of "Arrested Development" on Netflix.

"Stein may have attempted to define our generation through statistics and adjectives, but when it comes to Miss Porter's, everyone always calls us weird," she said, referencing "sprinkling cardboard cutouts of George Bush and Edward Cullen throughout the trees and bringing goats to campus" for the senior prank.

But amid all the labels, she said that many people viewed the 78 graduating seniors as a class that couldn't be defined.

"Like a rain storm, we're never the same," Arnett said, challenging her classmates to represent the positive traits Stein identified of her generation.

Shumlin recognized the graduates as an inclusive class of strong collaborators in the words Head of School Katherine Windsor. 

He also pointed out that everyone learns differently, sharing his experience of learning with dyslexia in a Vermont school system without a special education program. One school teacher brought him to her house throughout the course of a year and taught him to read after school officials told his parents they were struggling to do so. 

Shumlin went on to attend Wesleyan University in Middletown and often found himself wanting to do for someone what that teacher did for him.

After successfully lobbying against a proposal to put a maximum security prison in a former college in his Vermont hometown and subsequently being elected to local office, he helped bring the nation's first college for dyslexic students to the facility. Vermont's only female governor later appointed him to the legislature.  Shumlin eventually became a senator in the first state to allow civil unions and later the first state backing marriage equality "without a court order," he said. 

Women like the Miss Porter's "ancients," or graduates, have excelled despite facing gender discrimination and challenges, he said. He encouraged the graduates to say "yes" to opportunities. Referencing the frequent mention of inclement weather in the other graduation speeches, from rain to tornadoes and hurricanes, he mentioned one area where the graduates could make a difference.  

"I would argue that the biggest opportunity, the reason we have so much hope for this Class of 2013, is that they get that the biggest challenge we face is climate change, getting off our addiction to oil, moving to renewables and ensuring that this planet is livable for the future," Shumlin said. 

With a day of sun after a history of rain during major events, the Miss Porter's graduation traditions carried on, from marching with the Daisy Chain and planting ivy under the largest tree on campus to singing by the fountain and leaving daisies at Sarah Porter's grave, as described on the school website. 

"We'll remember the rain, but most importantly that the sun always follows it," Arnett said.