Bright skies and bright smiles filled Miss Charlotte's Garden on the Foxcroft School campus Friday morning as 52 members of the Class of 2007 received their diplomas at the School's 93rd commencement.

The Class, which includes young women from 14 states, four foreign countries and the District of Columbia, is an accomplished one, having received 122 acceptances to 87 colleges and universities, including Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, Duke and MIT. These girls were awarded nearly $2 million in merit scholarships, including National Merit and National Achievement awards.

Nikia Bergan, a member of the Class of 1993 and the daughter of revered faculty members Celeste P. and Paul K. Bergan, who are retiring this month, was the featured speaker and gave the graduates three key pieces of advice: Get to know yourselves as you are and learn to love that; Don't be afraid to make mistakes (and to learn from them) and be kind, always.

Jessica Mirshak of Chadds Ford, PA, was the Senior Class Speaker and Suzanne D. Kuser, a 1949 alumna and member of the School's Board of Trustees, gave the invocation.

Cherice Turner of Newark, NJ, was awarded the Head's Prize, a very special honor not given every year. It is awarded by the Head of School "to recognize special kinds of moral courage, often private, seldom noticed, and therefore the more deeply cherished." Turner will attend Johns Hopkins University in the fall.

Shannon Walker of Purcellville, Va, received the Charlotte Haxall Noland Award, for best combining the qualities that Miss Charlotte (Foxcroft's founder) valued: high purpose, leadership, integrity, accomplishments and understanding. Walker, who will attend Princeton University in the fall, also earned the Pillsbury Prize as class valedictorian. A member of the Foxcroft Chapter of the Cum Laude Society, she was named a National Achievement Scholar and Commended Student by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

National Merit Scholar and Cum Laude member Jillian Cairns, of Chantilly, VA, was the salutatorian. Cairns served as Student Head of School this past year and will matriculate at MIT in the fall. The Ida Applegate Award, for courtesy was shared by Jordan Pischke (Middleburg, VA) and Summers Pendarvis (Edgefield, SC).

Maureen O'Rourke (South Riding, VA) collected the Josie Bettner Mallace Prize for courage and humor, and Tiffany Mazaras received the Dudley Prize, for the senior who has been most cooperative in efforts for the good of the School.

Cum Laude Society chapter president and mathematics teacher Susan Erba inducted nine members of the Class and two juniors into the academic honor society, which is modeled after Phi Beta Kappa. The graduates inducted are Tanya Chanh (Arlington, VA), Stephanie Fitter (The Plains, VA), Savannah Guernsey (Clifton, VA), Lisa Jacobson (Reston, VA), Morgan Manley (New York, NY), Cameron Shaw (Fenton, MI), Sarah Smith (Millwood, VA), Cherice Turner, and Hadley Warner (Bridport, VT). Juniors Yejin Kim of Seoul, South Korea, and Catherine York of Upperville, VA were also inducted.