Prize Day 2016

Hats Off to the Graduating Sixth Form

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The Circle Voice Files

The graduating class of 2015 gathers next to the chapel on last year’s Prize Day.

Prize Day–a day that the Seniors have been looking forward to since the start of their Groton careers. After a gruesome Fall filled with college applications, a cold and dark Winter, and Spring filled with relief and fans everywhere. Their final days on the Circle as students encroach the final push which leads to the counting down of days in single digits.

The realization of Prize Day sets in student’s minds when the grand tent goes up. The official festivities begin on Saturday, when the reception for the sixth formers and their families is held at the Mr. Maqubela’s house. After the reception, are the all school awards and the form singing in the tent. Awards are handed out and at the end, the fifth formers serenade the Sixth Form during the annual Form Singing. After the Award ceremony there is one final sixth former dinner. After the form dinner, Saturday comes to an end for the sixth formers. On Sunday the sixth formers head to the Chapel for the service and then they walk out for Prize Day.

Every Prize Day, a Groton student from the graduating class delivers a speech on Prize Day. The speaker is chosen by the graduating form with all students voting for a student. This year’s Prize Day student speaker is Zahin Sen Das.

Zahin is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sen Das who have both been at Groton for more than a decade. Zahin was brought up and raised at Groton and has grown up on the school for most of his life. Zahin was greatly involved with the Circle Voice, Jazz Ensemble, B Flat Blues, Varsity Soccer, and Varsity Squash. He encompasses the goal of each Groton student: to find a balance between his work, his activities and his friends. When asked how he felt about speaking at Prize day, Zahin said that he was nervous but excited and was humbled to be presented with this huge opportunity.

Groton has always been able to bring some of the biggest and greatest names to Prize Day as their guest speaker, from world renowned journalists such as Christopher Isham to poets such as Billy Collins. This years Prize Day speaker will be former Chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme court, Margaret Hilary Marshall.

Margaret Marshall was born and raised in Newcastle South Africa before moving to the United States. Marshall graduated from Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. She was a member and led the National Union of South African Students, an anti- apartheid organization dedicated to ending the oppressive racial segregation in South Africa and achieving equality for all its citizens. She came to the US in 1968 and earned a Masters Degree in teaching from Harvard University. She then graduated with a Degree in law from Yale University in 1976.

After graduation from Yale, she worked at Casplar and Blok –a private, Boston law firm where she started of as an associate and later became partner. It was during this time that Marshall fell in love and married her late husband Anthony Lewis a columnist for the New York Times. After working Casplar and Blok for 11 years from 1976 to ‘89, she became a partner at Choate, Hall and Stewart. She was at Choate, Hall and Stewart for three years and during this time also served as the President for the Boston Bar Association from 1991 to ’92.

She was the vice president and general counsel to Harvard university for 6 years, from 1992 until 1996. It was during this time that Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Judicial court. She was appointed as an associate justice under Republican Governor William F. Weld and later became the Chief Justice in 1999, under Republican Governor Paul Ceucci. By becoming Chief Justice, Marshall was only the second woman in history to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court and was the first woman Chief Justice.

In the course of her eleven years as Chief Justice, Marshall wrote around 200 hundred opinions and was the first justice in United States to issue an opinion in the favor of legalizing same-sex marriages in Massachusetts on November 18th, 2003. The case was Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, and the ruling 4-3 was a momentous moment in not only Massachusetts, but also in Margaret Marshall’s career.

On July 21st, after a long and illustrious career, Margaret Marshall announced her retirement from the Supreme Judicial Court. She made this decision because she wanted to send more time with her husband who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease at the time. He, unfortunately passed away in 2013.

Margaret Marshall received many accolades and professional awards over her long and notable career. She is the recipient of the Yale Law School Alumni Award of Merit in 2006 and in 2012 she received an honorary Doctor of laws Degree.

“She has been a member of the Yale Law School Association Executive Committee since 1991. Chief Justice Marshall was elected Alumni Fellow in 2004 and served on the Corporation until 2010. She was appointed Successor Trustee in 2012, and Senior Fellow in 20131”

It is an honor to have Ms. Marshall on the Circle as the 2016 Prize Day day speaker. To the Form of 2016, pursue your dreams, grab hold of the opportunities given to you, and go well.