Graduating seniors throw their caps into the air during the Castilleja School Commencement in Palo Alto, Calif. on Saturday, June 1, 2024. 
A banner congratulating the graduating seniors hangs outside the Castilleja School Commencement in Palo Alto, Calif. on Saturday, June 1, 2024. 
Graduating seniors pose for a photo with their graduating caps prior to the Castilleja School Commencement in Palo Alto, Calif. on Saturday, June 1, 2024. 
Graduating seniors walk in pairs into the Castilleja School Commencement in Palo Alto, Calif. on Saturday, June 1, 2024. 
Graduting senior and Senior Class President, Reece Sharp, reads a poem by Maya Angelou during the Castilleja School Commencement in Palo Alto, Calif. on Saturday, June 1, 2024.
At Castilleja’s 117th commencement on June 1, the Class of 2024 sang and laughed its way through an event highlighted by commencement speaker Esi Eggleston Bracey of Unilever. New graduates were remembered for their perseverance and for working through a global pandemic to get to their special day.
White tables surrounded the graduation stage — one for each graduate. Piano played in the background as teachers, faculty and trustees walked through the center aisle, followed by the 61 soon-to-be graduates.
The commencement began with a speech from Kathy Layendecker, Castilleja’s acting head of school, who called the gathered seniors the “Eclipse Class” as there were solar eclipses to begin and end their Castilleja careers.
“We can all agree that this coincidence suggests the Class of 2024 is special in particularly noteworthy ways,” she said. Layendecker called the class “a bit magical,” and said that together the new graduates are bigger than the sum of their parts.
Commencement speaker Bracey shared her journey to being chief growth and marketing officer at Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company, and gave the class three “life gems” that she wished she had known when she graduated. She implored graduates to be yourself, do things that are scary or uncomfortable, and to choose big problems to make a big difference.
“My biggest wish for you is to use the privilege of this beautiful education to author profoundly fulfilling lives of authentic expression, joy and positive impact,” she said.
Student speaker and Castilleja award winner Samantha Solomon spoke after Bracey, sharing her journey as a shy kid who loved superheroes. She said she has been inspired by superheroes her whole life, admiring the way they face their fears and stand up for what is right.
Solomon reminisced on her first days at Castilleja. She remembered being in the sixth grade, with butterflies in her stomach, saying she felt like Wonder Woman “entering a whole new world” while feeling out of place and unsure of what her place was at a new school.
“But Class of 2024, your kindness is unmatched,” she said. “You brought me into our massive circles at lunch and chaotic classroom conversations.”
She finished her speech by thanking her fellow classmates and saying that she won’t remember the banners in the gym or the Bourn lab, rather the impact her peers made on her.
After diplomas were handed out and students sang the Castilleja School Song, the Class of 2024 threw caps in the air, celebrating the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next.