This June, the Class of 2024 celebrates grit, brotherhood, and community. With thunderous support from family and friends, teachers, and coaches, one hundred eighteen once-Sixth Formers cross the stage and hold the symbolic promise of diplomas—college, adulthood, and what lies beyond—in their hands.
As we leave 450 Lancaster Avenue, adorned in maroon blazers and charcoal slacks, we, members of ’24, reflect on the years spent together. Novelty frequented much of the path to graduation. From Virtue and Virtual Villages in middle school to fragmented cohorts in Third Form year, the Class of 2024 shares a distinctive appreciation for time spent together.
Unity and brotherhood characterize this class like no other. From earnest assemblies and three packed viewings of the spring musical, Beauty and the Beast, to collective hikes to athletic contests far and wide, the young men graduating share a bond they will not let fray—they provide no excuses for disconnection.
Of course, this Sixth Form cannot be characterized without interruption by the pandemic. For students like Sixth Form Student Council Representative Arsh Aggarwal, the formative transition from middle to high school distinctly shaped life in the upper school.
“I really hate to even mention the pandemic at all, but if I could trace what makes our class what it is back to one thing, it would be a collective sort of suffering from the pandemic,” Aggarwal said. “A lot of us really missed out on a lot of formative moments like the Rite of Passage and the trip to Puerto Rico. Coming into freshman year we were in masks and on and off virtual. We didn’t have a traditional Haverford experience.”
Sixth Former Tripp Ronon shares a resistance to the pandemic period.
“It was not in our control. The Class of 2024 could have gone entirely differently without [COVID] that happened at the beginning of freshman and sophomore year.”
While virtual spaces and social distancing may have shifted the first experiences of this class, what truly sets ’24 apart is how hard we worked to restart our communities—to come back together stronger than ever.
“We all made the subconscious but collective decision to buy into Haverford in a way that no other class had ever done before,” Aggarwal said. “We knew how special our bond was because it had been taken away from us, and I think more than anything we just wanted to make up for lost time and be together.”
And this collective buy-in we share—the Haverford spirit of upright conduct and abounding energy—redefined the expectations of normalcy.
Sixth Former Chase Nelson said, “Our respect for each other [is our strength]. We’re selfless, tolerant. When I look back to our underclassmen years, I saw us struggling to find upperclassmen leaders. Now, I feel like our class did such a good job of setting a good example for the [underclassmen].”
The traces of our class’s leadership left visible imprints on the community.
For Nelson, highlights include “the first week of trips—going on camping trips and day trips with underclassmen [and] when we won the soccer game at EA day.”
“The face of the varsity soccer players was surreal when we stormed the field. I loved seeing everyone come together,” Nelson said. “The EA Day Video, too—kudos to [Sixth Former] Asa Winikur on that video. It hyped everyone up.”
But the Sixth Form’s leadership took shape in formal, uplifting spaces too.
“I think we can be really proud of the bar we set on the reflection series this year,” Aggarwal said. “Whenever you talk about what makes a class great, it’s usually intangibles that aren’t really quantifiable or that don’t last long enough to be made a legacy. For our class, the Class of 2024, we can be known for pouring our hearts and souls into each and every one of our Reflections this year. I think it sets a positive tone for the coming years of students as to how meaningful a Reflection can be if done with purpose.”
And earnest many of us were in front of our brothers in Centennial. From humorous accounts of long commutes to vulnerable meditations on image, mindset, and outlook—we’ve given ourselves the opportunity to see each other beyond singularity. Aggarwal describes this year’s reflection series as having a “domino effect—the entire community rallies around that particular student and afterwards especially, the student is thanked and congratulated by everybody, not just their specific friend or teacher group.”
Alongside our collective strength, ’24 honors each individual’s strengths.
“We’re not a monolith,” Ronon said. “When talking about our strengths and accomplishments, we have so many—especially on the individual level. As a collective, we’ve all made it… We all know each other.”
For many, that spirit continues beyond graduation. Speaking of life in the future, he said: “I want to invite [peers] to dinner or something. I want to get to know them [in the future].”
Aggarwal, alongside Sixth Former Casey Williams, dedicated three-weeks to tracing the memories, distinctions, and communities of the Class of 2024 in his graduation project—a documentary celebrating ’24. For him, this proved not only rewarding, but insightful.
“Making the documentary has been one of the best experiences of my high school career because I feel like I’ve gained a much deeper understanding of our class as both individuals and as a whole,” Aggarwal said.
Teachers and faculty have gathered the unique brotherhood of ’24.
“Talking with teachers during interviews for the documentary, [our unity] became evident. I think a lot of that can be attributed to us not having had a normal start to high school and simply making the most of all the time we had together. Our experiences hold us together,” Aggarwal said. “That’s what makes us who we are.”
On the final day of classes for the Sixth Form, Form Dean Ms. Brooke Kenna wrote, “[I am] very proud and thankful for each of you.” She recounted leadership, such as that by the Signet Society, to be among the most compelling she’d worked with.
Across the Class of 2024, gratitude—for years spent learning, growing, and bonding—remains foundational to our experience. Sixth Form Student Body President Asa Winikur is thankful for the opportunity to have such a brotherhood.
“I appreciate [the Class of 2024] more than you could imagine and I am so proud and blessed to belong to this brotherhood,” Winikur wrote in his final letter to the student body.
Foundationally, community as a class typifies the strong connections we hold to each other. Aggarwal calls this our “togetherness.”
“It’s [rare] to find a class where you can genuinely say that every single person gets along with another. For me, this is the only class I’ve ever interacted with that actually spends time with each other outside of school as a whole, not just small, disconnected friend groups,” Aggarwal said, “Whether it be on senior skip days, coming together as an entire grade, or even Memorial Day weekends at Avalon hanging out, [it’s] truly special, and I think that embodies everything our class stands for.”
Class of 2024, it is an honor and a gift to have shared these formative years together. Outlining our memories are the forever earmarks of our camaraderie: there are many memories still to be made—on the commencement stage, and hopefully well into the future.
