Sofia Ferrante, a member of the Brookewood School class of 2026, was honored to have been voted by her classmates and teachers to deliver a commencement address to her fellow seniors, the faculty, families and friends in attendance at the May 23 graduation ceremony of the Kensington all-girls Catholic K-12 school.
In an email interview beforehand with the Catholic Standard, Ferrante wrote that she planned to convey in her speech an appreciation for the school she has attended since second grade. “Brookewood has given us an education in how to see the world as a gift and the beauty and inherent value of the people we encounter,” she wrote. “Those skills and the continuing support of the community will help us all succeed in this next chapter of our lives.”
For Ferrante, 18, that next chapter will be the University of Maryland in College Park. She does not have a planned major yet, but hopes to enter the medical field, following in the footsteps of her parents, Fernando and Elka, and several extended family members.
“I have always had a love for science that I first noticed in my natural history classes at Brookewood,” she wrote, adding that her AP biology class in her junior year challenged her and further reinforced her love for science.
“Science classes became a different outlet through which I could see the workings of God in the natural world. The intricacy of the cell and the connections between all living things fascinated me,” wrote Ferrante, who is a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.
One of her other favorite Brookewood classes dealt with the history of film. While she did not single out a favorite movie, she writes that two which particularly stood out for her are Roberto Benigni’s “Life Is Beautiful” and Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life.”
“The first is able to combine humor and tragic circumstance supported by incredible acting, and the slow pace of the latter causes you to think during every minute of silence and the story is complex and so simple at the same time that you need those moments to wrap your head around his decision,” she wrote.
A native of San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Germantown, Ferrante is also a standout soccer player for Brookewood’s varsity team, playing from eighth grade through 12th and for a club team from first grade to 10th grade. She especially loved being teammates with her older sister, Anna, who graduated from Brookewood in 2023, and hopes to continue in the sport at the University of Maryland by playing on an intramural team.
Ferrante wrote that many of the beloved Brookewood traditions – the walking pilgrimages, the annual gala, the sports games, the senior class trip to Boston, the festival days – all contributed to making the school such a memorable and tight-knit community for her. This year, she had the honor of serving as a senior house captain. Of that experience, she wrote, “It was an amazing opportunity to live out all of the values that I learned from the many great teachers who were examples for me growing up.”
As Ferrante and her classmates approached their graduation day, she wrote that it would be bittersweet for the class of 2026, many of whom have spent a decade or more together as Brookewood girls.
“I don’t think the fact of our leaving has truly become real for any of us…The concept that we will not be attending the same school next year, while we’ve been confronted with it all year, has not quite settled in,” she wrote. “We’ll always have the connections we made going forward.”
Lifelong friendships, but also a faith that was shaped by the lessons she and her classmates took to heart, will be carried with them forever, Ferrante wrote, saying, “Brookewood helped shape my faith by demonstrating through actions and words that every person you encounter is important and deserving of love and kindness.”
