Last Friday, Rocky Hill School in Warwick had its annual convocation event, welcoming students under sunny skies.

As Head of School Dr. James Tracy took to the podium, he welcomed the school community and honored guests to the event and asked all to take a moment to remember a past Head of School, Alan Flynn, who had recently passed away, noting that although he had not had the pleasure of meeting Flynn, who was headmaster prior to his arrival to Rocky Hill, a building on the Rocky Hill campus is named in his honor.

Tracy announced that the start of school had been a good one and then alluded to some recent news reports on the national landscape that described hateful behavior, hate crimes and other incidences occurring nationwide. He reiterated to the students and staff that he was proud of the fact that Rocky Hill School does not see that type of behavior on campus, rather the campus treats all equally and with value, all races, religions, genders and ethnicities.

“That type of behavior does not belong here,” he said.

He introduced Meg Stowe, Director of Innovation at Rocky Hill, who talked about the newest direction that Rocky Hill will be taking in the area of innovation, as it joins with the edtech program, LearnLaunch (learnlaunch.com), which connects and supports the education technology industry by creating collaborative partnerships between entrepreneurs in the edtech industry and other communities.

Stowe described the partnership briefly, noting that 11 edtech ventures will be coming to the campus community, where students will be collaborating with the entrepreneurs on several levels, from business to marketing and advertising, to participating in focus group-type activities to help identify possible issues with a product or find ways to make it better, as well as to identify the features and benefits of a product.

Rocky Hill may be the only other school in the nation currently taking part in such a unique collaboration, as they connect with students in the classroom pre-market, according to Tracy.

The convocation event ended with a whole-school photo and Del’s Lemonade on the lawn, a new tradition that was deemed an annual event.

For more information about Rocky Hill School, visit their website at wwww.rockyhill.org.