Juan Williams, award-winning journalist and author, addressed the larger forces shaping society today – the increasing power and infl uence of women and the growing number of old people. He noted that women are now a majority of both the workforce and the electorate; 60% of undergraduate degrees are awarded to women; and 2011 is the year baby boomers turn 65. While there are both positives and negatives to each of these phenomena, Williams urged educators to prepare young people for leadership in a society where immigration, wealth, and age are the new stress points.

“Thank you from the heart as a child of an independent school. What you all do makes such a difference. And it made such a difference in my life that I can’t begin to explain who I might be if it had not been for people like you taking a chance on someone me. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. All of you, doubt, feel overwhelmed. You all have budget issues; you all have personnel issues; I’m sure you have parents and kids who seem as if they’re ingrates and hard heads. But, you have to stop for a second and see yourself through my eyes. And if you do that you really see yourselves as the kind of people who make a difference in this world, because you believe in young people and you take a chance on young people, and sometimes those young people deliver.” - Juan Williams