Marine Corps Colonel Gives Severn School A Clear Charge On Anniversary Of 9/11

Twenty-five years to the day after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks changed the landscape of the nation and the trajectory of U.S. Marine Corps Col. Lindsay Mathwick’s life forever, she stood before students and faculty at Severn School to impart a message of leadership and character to high schoolers who were not yet born on 9/11.

Born into a U.S. Navy family, Mathwick attended high school at Severn School and graduated in 2000. She began at Penn State as a Navy option ROTC scholarship and vividly recalls the morning of 9/11. She had been in a physics lab and walked past a friend who said, “Hey, something’s happened up in New York.” Crowded around a TV in the ROTC building on campus, she and her peers had the sense that their lives were about to change.

The terrorist attacks and ensuing War in Afghanistan were the catalyst that led Mathwick to change her scholarship to be a Marine.

Over the last quarter century, Mathwick earned her commission through The Pennsylvania State University Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program and attended The Basic School, Logistics Officer Course, Expeditionary Warfare School, the United Kingdom’s Advanced Command and Staff Course, and the College of Naval Warfare. She holds master’s degrees in leadership, defense studies, and national security and strategic studies.

Mathwick has been deployed several times, including twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and most recently to the Indo Pacific Area of Responsibility aboard the USS Somerset, named for United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on 9/11.

On September 11, 2026, she returned to her alma mater in Severna Park to speak to the student body during the school’s annual Academic and Community Codes assembly.

Assistant Upper School Head Marc Buckley shared that Severn School has had an honor code for much of its history. Following the coronavirus pandemic, students felt the code no longer reflected the community.

“So the student council back then wanted to spearhead an effort to revise the honor code, and what they came up with were two separate codes,” Buckley explained. “One was an academic code … and the community code, which was separate from it, became more about how we treat each other.”

The latter code emphasizes valuing diversity and interactions that are marked by respect above all else. At the beginning of each academic year, all new faculty and students attend an assembly that culminates with them publicly signing the codes in a book on stage.

Mathwick was the keynote speaker for this year’s assembly, and she shared with students that the vow they would make that day was not unlike some rites of passage in the Marine Corps – though there’s “certainly less mud, sweat and screaming,” she joked.

Mathwick encouraged the students to develop career skills but to prioritize a skillset that she believes will constitute superpowers in the world ahead.

“What I also want you to work on is these other skills that I think will be extremely rare in the future,” Mathwick said during the assembly. “If someone can look into the eyes of one of their peers and have a really difficult conversation, if you can take ownership of your actions, if you can choose kindness over cruelty, I think you’re going to separate yourself from the crowd in a big way going forward.”

Her charge reflected the values outlined in the code, which new faculty and over 100 students signed following Mathwick’s remarks.

Severn seniors Myles Goger and Jake Handy had the opportunity to ask Mathwick questions prior to the assembly. Handy asked her what values a great leader would have. “Set the example,” was her unequivocal response.

“I brought it into this assembly – when you sign the book, you’re setting the example for everyone that comes after you,” said Handy, who signed the code four years earlier as a freshman. “I know that ‘set the example’ will stick with me for the rest of my life now.”

Goger noted that Mathwick’s words about leadership will translate to the lacrosse field as well.

Her message to students on September 11, 2026, was clear.

“I don’t need you to be rocket scientists. I don’t need you to be the next Pat Mahomes or Caitlin Clark. I don’t need you to launch seven successful start-up businesses. What this community needs from you and what the world beyond Severn School is going to demand of you is the courage to take ownership of your actions,” Mathwick said.