HEBRON — Hebron Academy opened its 206th school year with a convocation devoted to “stories” and the excitement and challenges of a new year.

Math teacher Ian Cross offered the faculty welcome, and the student welcome was given by Polly Drown, a senior from Leeds, who urged her fellow students to “make the most of this year – you have the power to make it awesome.”

Singer Kelly Caufield, a native of Gorham who has sung with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and Portland’s Good Theater, performed the Broadway songs “Make Them Hear You” from Ragtime and “The Wizard and I” from Wicked.

Hebron Head of School John King reminded the students of the school’s mission to “inspire and guide students to reach their highest potential in mind, body and spirit.”

Maine children’s book creator and illustrator Anne Sibley O’Brien, the convocation guest speaker, greeted the students in Korean, to the delight of the many Hebron students from that country. She described her childhood in Korea as the daughter of medical missionaries, learning two languages and two cultures, and feeling “enormously conspicuous because of my looks, like a princess and an alien from Mars.”

Hebron Academy opened the new academic year with more than 250 students from 15 states and 12 countries. The academy was founded in 1804 and is an independent, co-educational boarding and day school that serves grades six through postgraduate.

For more information, visit www.hebronacademy.org or call 966-2100.