Dedication Day 2026
September 14, 2026
At Perpich, the school year begins with a choice. Students choose Perpich. Families choose Perpich. Teachers and staff choose Perpich. And once a new school year begins, everyone has another choice to make: to be present, take risks, make art, build relationships, and fully engage in the experience.
That was the spirit of Dedication 2026, held September 14th as students, faculty, staff, and alumni gathered to welcome a new year and reflect on what it means to be part of the Perpich community. The ceremony featured speeches from seniors representing all art areas, a faculty member, and two Perpich alums.
The annual Dedication poster, signed by all students
“Perpich is a choice,” said emcee and Principal Rebecca Bullen. “Students choose Perpich. Families choose Perpich. Teachers and staff choose Perpich.” Dedication is both a ritual and a promise. It is a chance for the community to commit to artistry and learning, to compassion and curiosity, and to giving ourselves and one another room to try, fail, learn, and try again. Most importantly, Bullen reminded students that Perpich is something they help create. “We make this community together,” she said, pointing to the small, everyday choices that communicate to one another: “You belong here. Your voice matters. There is a place for you in this community.”
Faculty speaker Kevin Werner Hohlstein, Music Instructor, knows that creative paths rarely follow a straight line. In his Dedication remarks, Hohlstein reflected on his own journey as a performer, director, writer, choreographer, music director, teacher, and storyteller. Early in his career, he thought he knew exactly what success would look like. Then, after working steadily as a professional musical theater performer, he wasn’t cast in the next show he expected to be part of. At the time, it felt like a failure. But other opportunities continued to find him. Looking back, Hohlstein realized that the experiences that didn’t look like his original plan were still shaping his career and his creative life.
His first takeaway for students was simple: “Don’t discount the value in the things you are doing just because they don’t look the way you thought they would.” His second lesson came from a cabaret rehearsal, when a music director challenged him after hearing him sing: “Kevin, you always sound great, but where is your story?” The comment reminded Hohlstein that technical skill is only part of being an artist. “Always work on your craft,” he told students. “Continue to improve your skill. Discover new things about your artform and learn those. AND remember at the heart of all you do you are telling a story.”
His final takeaway was about commitment. “No matter what it is, when you say ‘yes’, mean it,” he said. “The project. The job. The relationship. The conversation. The walk. The staring at the sunset. The school. Be in it 100%.”
The heart of the ceremony came from six seniors, who each reflected on dedication from the perspective of their art area.
Adrianna Dvorak (Dance 2027) encouraged her classmates to think about the questions behind their work. Drawing on choreographer Bill T. Jones, she described the importance of asking “urgent questions” through art. For Adrianna, dance isn’t simply about movement or performance. It can be a way to investigate the world. “So as dancers, we must ask ourselves, what urgent questions do we want to answer?” she asked. She described creating movement around questions of power and hierarchy and encouraged her classmates to continue the cycle: think, collaborate, create, perform, and inspire an audience to ask its own questions.
Anais Froberg-Martinez (Literary Arts 2027) spoke about something equally important: finding the confidence to claim her own voice. Before Perpich, Anais often felt as though being heard was something she had to earn. During her first visit to Perpich, however, she encountered students who openly owned their favorite writers, genres, and creative influences. “I remain dedicated to Perpich because Perpich has been dedicated to me,” she said. Her time at Perpich helped her understand that her authority to tell a story isn’t conditional. “I’ve learned I can be seen without earning it,” Anais said. “My authority to tell a story is not conditional.”
Student speakers at Dedication 2026: Adrianna Dvorak, Dance; Anais Froberg-Martinez, Literary Arts; Carlo Sucero, Media Arts; Sean Healy, Music; Nell Yang, Theater/Musical Theater; Kaysa Kuhn, Visual Arts
Carlo Sucero (Media Arts 2027) took a decidedly more unconventional approach. “I’m a maggot,” he announced. Not literally, of course. Carlo used the image of a maggot to explore perspective: something that might seem insignificant or even disgusting to one person can be incredibly meaningful to another. His speech moved from photographs of raccoons to a larger idea about what makes something art, and who gets to decide how it should be received. “The greatest thing about art is that it can be received any way by anyone,” Carlo said. For him, Perpich has changed the way he sees the world and made him dedicated to art, and to becoming the best maggot he can be.
Sean Healy (Music 2027) reflected on the sense of belonging he found among fellow musicians. Having already gained experience performing professionally, Sean arrived at Perpich with a strong connection to music. What he found here was a community of people who shared his passion and respected the work happening across all of the arts. Perpich also gave him opportunities to shape his own experience. “Perpich is what you make it out to be,” Sean said. He talked about the pride he feels when people ask where he goes to school, and how much he genuinely enjoys being here.
Nell Yang (Theater 2027) described Perpich as a place where students don’t necessarily make their original dreams come true, they learn how to build new ones. “Perpich is not the place where your dreams come true, but rather a place where you can build and rebuild your dreams,” Nell said. The dreams students bring with them when they arrive may change. That isn’t failure; it is growth. Nell described learning that she could build her own bridge into the future, encouraging students not to be afraid of new experiences or the uncertainty that comes with them. “This is where you can start placing the blocks that create your life,” she said.
Kaysa Kuhn (Visual Arts 2027) asked the community to reconsider something she had once been taught to dismiss: beauty. In her previous school, she recalled debates about whether truth, beauty, or goodness was most important. Beauty was often treated as unnecessary, even dangerous. Yet she found herself drawing flowers, birds, and clouds in the margins on her notebook while those debates took place. Her experience at Perpich helped her recognize that beauty matters. Art can bring color, light, and hope. It can touch people, spark change, and help us imagine a better future. “I like to think that art helps us live a little bit longer,” Kaysa said. Her message to her classmates was simple: “So create!”
Every year, Dedication also brings alumni back into the building: to speak, to perform, and to reconnect with the community that helped shape them. This year, alumni speaker Zoë Levin (Theater 2007) and alumni performer Nat Swanson (Music 2008) returned together. The two first met at Perpich, when Zoë walked into a practice room and locked eyes with Nat. Nineteen years later, they’re married, raising a young child, and still building creative lives together. Their paths after Perpich have taken some unexpected turns. Nat went on to study cello at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and spent years performing professionally. For Dedication, he performed a beautiful rendition of Cello Suite No. 1 in G major by Johann Sebastian Bach.
L to R: Zoë Levin (Theater 2007) and Nat Swanson (Music 2008) pose together after the Dedication 2026 ceremony.
Zoe, meanwhile, became an entrepreneur, co-founding Bim Bam Boo, a tree-free toilet paper company. She launched the company through Kickstarter, co-wrote its script with a fellow Perpich graduate, and continues to draw on the skills she developed as a theater artist. Today, Bim Bam Boo is one of the top brands at Whole Foods, Target, and Amazon, and it’s kept over a million pounds of trees standing. Her theater background, she explained, wasn’t a detour from her career; it became part of how she works every day, from collaborating with artists and developing the brand to pitching buyers and speaking on stages. Even Bim Bam Boo’s workplace has a distinctly Perpich connection: every full-time employee is a Perpich graduate. Nat serves as the company’s operations manager. For Zoe, the winding path is part of the point. “Perpich is not a school,” she told students. “Perpich is a passageway.” Inside that passageway, she said, is a gift: the opportunity to discover who you are as an artist, to remain curious, and to keep creating, even when the path ahead doesn’t look the way you expected. She also offered a message to the students who are just beginning their Perpich journey: “You belong here.”
As students received their Dedication pendants and senior representatives lit candles, the ceremony brought the community together around that idea of belonging. The pendant is a Perpich tradition dating back to 1989. It symbolizes students’ commitment to their art, themselves, and their community, and becomes a small, tangible reminder of their time here. But Dedication isn’t really about the pendant or the ceremony. It’s about what students choose to do with the time that follows.
- What will you make?
- What will you learn?
- Who will you become?
- And what will you give to the community along the way?
Hohlstein reminded students that, at the heart of every art form, they are storytellers. “Continue to say yes to what shows up,” he said. “Remember that you are storytellers. Tell your story. And know it has value because it is yours.”
For the 2026–27 school year, the invitation is simple: choose Perpich, choose the moment, and see where it takes you.
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