Grove School Celebrates the Class of 2026

Grove School gathered on August 16 to celebrate its 2026 graduating class, marking the completion of a journey that asked as much of the heart as it did of the mind.

In his remarks to open the ceremony, Executive Director Peter Chorney reflected on what it means to find one’s way, a theme he traced through his own family this summer, through the students in front of him, and through his father, Richard Chorney, Grove’s CEO Emeritus.

Chorney shared stories of his two sons: one who spent the summer leading middle schoolers through the wilderness of Yosemite and Lake Tahoe, weathering everything from a bear raid on the campsite to a runaway U-Haul; the other who met a discouraging job search after college by building a routine of persistence, therapy, and self-care. Neither story, he noted, was really about the résumé line. Both were about what happens when a young person meets difficulty and keeps going.

That idea, Chorney told the graduates, is the heart of a Grove education. Alongside academics, extracurriculars, and friendships, Grove students take on clinical work that most of their peers never have to face. They learn to examine their own behavior, accept feedback, recover from setbacks, and begin again, often more than once.

The ceremony also carried a tribute to Richard Chorney, for whom Grove’s transition program has been renamed. What was formerly known as the Transition House is now the RLC Wayfinder House, honoring the programming he built at Grove over decades and the compass he gave so many students and staff along the way. Peter Chorney shared that the family held a small ceremony earlier this summer to unveil the new sign, a moment made more meaningful by his father’s ongoing journey with Alzheimer’s disease.

Following Chorney’s remarks, each graduate was introduced by a staff member of their choosing, a Grove tradition, and shared a few words of their own before receiving their diplomas. Caps went up, families cheered, and a room full of people who had shown up again and again for these students watched them take their next step forward.

Members of the Class of 2026 are heading on to:

BYU Idaho
Central Connecticut State University
Emerson College
Endicott College
Fashion Institute of Technology
Johnson & Wales University
Kennesaw State University
RLC Wayfinder House
Scenic View Academy
Skidmore College
Temple University