2026 Alumni Summit: All About Integrity
Nineteen alumni returned to campus on Friday for the annual Alumni Summit. As always, the theme of the summit is the year’s core value, which means presenters shared about their journeys from Millbrook to success through the lens of integrity.
The speakers represented graduating classes from 1982 to 2019 and work in a wide variety of industries, from media and law to education and scientific research. We even had a cheese monger among us in Alice Bergen Phillips ’05!
To get the event started, faculty band The Dores treated the community to a rousing rendition of “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, accompanied by Mike Simons ’87 on the drums. The musical reminder to live with integrity sent the crowd of faculty and students off to a day full of sessions with the alumni presenters, where they learned about potential career paths and had the chance to network.
This year’s keynote speaker was Matthew Hickling ’04. He shared a powerful story of how his life has been shaped by integrity. As a young man, Matt’s identity was rooted in hockey, and he followed that path through college and into a career in sports management, working with a minor league hockey team in his hometown of Albany, New York. Although he quickly worked his way into leadership, the lifestyle got to him. He watched people around him succumb to the grind and lose their families, and his own struggles left him feeling lost and listless. “But that's where integrity found me,” he said. “Not in success, not in clarity, but in the middle of this uncertainty, because integrity isn't about being perfect; it's about choosing whether you respond when things are hard. When you're hurting, when you've lost, it's deciding the pain will not define you, but it's going to shape you. And the path that presented itself to me was unpaved and not easy to find.”
That path was healthcare. When his mother suggested he consider nursing, he initially laughed at the idea. Nursing was the last thing someone who identified as a jock would consider. However, the idea stuck with him, and he eventually decided to make the switch. The unlikely career change led him to find his true purpose in serving others. “I went from boardrooms to cleaning rooms. And yes, wiping patients. It's a fast lesson in humility. Healthcare strips everything down to one question. How do you show up for someone else?”
Now a pediatric nurse practitioner, Matt is a leader in the field, his impact extending to youth mental health, AI in medicine, and healthcare operations. His message was one of resilience and hope—exactly what our students needs to hear as they prepare to find their way through a world that’s changing at breakneck speed. He admonished students at the end of his address, “Just remember, if a washed-up hockey player that needed a tutor for basically everything can stand up here and talk about integrity, then what you're capable of is far beyond what you might believe right now.”
After just four years, Alumni Summit is already one of the most important and impactful traditions on campus. Students and faculty are always inspired by the stories alumni from all walks of life share, and we’re already excited to begin planning next year’s summit!
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