One of my favorite archival photos is of a 1910 reunion, just 46 years after SMA’s founding. There are no names or location — only the event and date penciled on the back. I love to wonder about the women pictured there: What SMA moments did they cherish? Who were their friends? What made them laugh? How did their education at SMA help shape them into the best versions of themselves?

Similar questions will run through my mind today at the Golden Graduates Luncheon, as 100-plus extraordinary women who graduated 50 or more years ago gather for a cherished tradition.

I’ve attended many Golden Graduates luncheons, and each year I meet alumnae eager to share snippets of their SMA years. Their stories remind me that today’s students are on their way to becoming their best selves, as these alumnae did. The mood will be fun and festive with endless stories, raucous laughter, photos of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and a class portrait of friendships spanning decades.

These class portraits call to mind the Portrait of a Graduate statements SMA developed a few years ago for our three schools. Each expressed SMA’s vision of the academic, social, and personal skills students will need to navigate the future.

What might a Portrait of a Graduate have looked like in earlier generations? I imagine its essence would have been much the same as it is today, with each generation of students finding its own ways to learn, lead, serve, and make a difference in the world of their time.  Some examples are students making bandages for soldiers during World War I; a 1940s class heading into downtown Denver to explore social issues firsthand; graduates of the 1930s navigating college and the wider world; and students serving on the mayor’s teen advisory board in the early 1960s. 

When the alumnae line up for their portraits this weekend, no one will be thinking about the Portrait of a Graduate statement or the elegantly dressed alumnae of generations past. Instead, they’ll be creating a portrait of their own—a keepsake filled with laughter, friendship, memories, and love for SMA. In that moment, they’ll become part of another kind of Portrait of a Graduate, one that stretches across generations of SMA women.